He is a star on TikTok: construction worker Nelson Jackson inspires millions with his dance moves. blue News editor Bruno Bötschi met him at a dance class.
I’m passionate about dancing, which is why I occasionally spend a night at the club.
Nelson Jackson is also a hobby dancer.
The native Portuguese does not dance in clubs, but in his orange construction site overalls between scaffolding and construction cranes – and millions of people watch him.
«I love dancing. But I also like my work in construction as a formworker,” says Nelson Jackson. «When I dance on the construction site during breaks or after work, my team and I always have a lot of fun together. Dancing makes me happy.”
Well, I thought: I want to be able to do what Nelson Jackson can do. So I asked him for a dance lesson. You can see what became of it in the video above.
The rise to internet stardom
Nelson Jackson’s rise to internet stardom began two years ago. In April 2020, the 37-year-old uploaded his first dance video to the online platform TikTok.
After that it all happened very quickly: Today he has over 117,100 followers TikTok and over 11’100 on Instagram. Some videos of the dancing construction worker from Meilen ZH are viewed by a whopping four million people.
Nelson Jackson discovered his passion for dancing at the age of four. At eleven he showed the at a big event in Portugal “Moon Walk” by Michael Jackson. 7000 people watched him.
His nickname was also born with this performance: From then on, at school they only called Nelson Martins “Jackson”. A name he has retained to this day.
If you want to know whether blue News editor Bruno Bötschi also has what it takes to become a TikTok star, take a look at his Account an.