Nico Santos Trapped in a Hotel Elevator: When the Door Wouldn’t Open

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Nico Santos Trapped in a Hotel Elevator: When the Door Wouldn’t Open.

The door to a hotel elevator does not open even though Nico Santos and his dancers have actually finished: After about three minutes, the dance scene was complete, but their way out remained blocked. The singer called through a small gap in the elevator door for his manager to open it. According to him, that took another five minutes.

What sounds like a brief video shoot turned into an unplanned situation in a confined space for Nico Santos. In his podcast, “Mit den Waffeln einer Frau,” the 33-year-old singer explained that he experienced a previously unknown fear of confined spaces during the incident. The actual recording was long since over. There is, however, an important detail to the story: The team wanted to use the elevator while the hotel was open.

Why the Hotel Elevator Was Stopped for the Shoot

Filming While the Hotel Was Open

Originally, Nico Santos was supposed to dance in the elevator with several dancers while it remained in regular operation. That created a problem, however: Other hotel guests kept getting in. As a result, the elevator was temporarily stopped for the shoot.

This made the elevator both the setting and a studio-like environment. Hotel guests who would have entered during regular operation were prevented from boarding by the stop. After about three minutes, Nico Santos and the dancers had finished their performance. According to Santos, that was the moment the actual recording ended and the difficulties began.

The scene therefore took place under conditions that the participants had deliberately changed. An open question-and-answer session in the elevator was not planned. Instead, the result was a recording with a clear beginning and end, although the end did not go as intended.

The Closed Door Becomes a Problem

Five Minutes Before It Opened

When the dancers were finished, the elevator door did not open. Santos describes in the podcast conversation that they were already sweating and slowly noticed the windows fogging up. The closed door therefore not only disrupted the group’s planned course, but also put them in a situation that became increasingly cramped.

Santos came up with a solution: Through a “mini-gap” in front of the elevator door, he called to his manager to finally open it. His wording makes clear that the door did not respond immediately. “That then still took five minutes,” he says of the waiting time.

The reports do not provide further details. They name neither the hotel nor the city or country. Nor is any technical cause given for the door’s failure. How the door eventually opened also remains unclear. What is established is the sequence of events: The dance scene ended after about three minutes, the door remained closed, and the manager was asked through the mini-gap to open it. After another five minutes, the situation was over.

A New Fear Becomes Real for Santos

Confined Spaces

During his time in the closed elevator, Santos noticed that he had some fear of confined spaces. He shared this observation during his conversation with host Barbara Schöneberger. As he recalls, it was the only fear he developed throughout the conversation.

This makes the incident more than a brief anecdote about a video shoot. It shows a singer who filmed a video during a three-minute elevator shoot, then waited five minutes for the door to open and describes a new personal insecurity in the process. The sources do not reveal whether the fear later played any further role or whether he used additional elevators during his tour. His statement in the podcast is the only certainty.

The shoot was part of a turbulent period for Nico Santos. The singer, whose real name is Nico Wellenbrink, released his double album “POV”, featuring 18 songs, in the past week. On it, he presents himself as vulnerable and optimistic at the same time. He is currently touring with the album.

The report therefore does not appear in isolation: It connects an unusual moment during a video shoot with the album Santos is currently promoting. The elevator itself was the setting for only a few minutes. The real story emerged in that one video, in which the closed door remains shut and turns a planned dance sequence into a personal revelation.

You can find the reports at Tagesspiegel and BBC Technology on ZEIT ONLINE.