The “BULLY” standout track features a Michael Jackson impersonator so convincing that fans spent hours debating whether it was AI
Kanye West released the music video for Father early this morning, and within hours, the conversation had shifted almost entirely to the man sitting two pews behind him in a church scene wearing an all-white suit.
The video, directed by West’s wife Bianca Censori, is the latest cut from his album BULLY. It opens inside a church where a congregation gathers around a communion table. Travis Scott appears among those approaching the altar. West himself sits nearby before the video eventually reveals him to be an alien in disguise. A knight on horseback and a pair of astronauts round out the cast. None of them generated nearly as much attention as the figure in white near the back of the room.
The man in the pews
For the first portion of the video, that figure sits motionless, staring forward, and says nothing. He bears an uncanny resemblance to the late Michael Jackson. By the end of the video, he rises and exits as part of the congregation leaving the church, and viewers were left trying to figure out whether what they had seen was real.
The initial assumption online was that West had used an AI recreation of Jackson’s likeness. The resemblance was that precise. It turned out to be something more interesting. The man in the pew was Fabio Jackson, a 32-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator who has built a substantial following across social media. Fabio confirmed the appearance by reposting coverage of the video to his Instagram Stories shortly after it dropped.
@officialfabiojackson I hope he is doing well. #fabiojackson #freemontstreet #vegas #fyp ♬ TERRITORY – The Blaze
Who Fabio Jackson is
Fabio went viral last year after a TikTok showed him crossing paths with another Jackson street performer and offering a slow, knowing nod of approval. The clip circulated widely and introduced him to an audience well beyond the impersonator community.
He is also among the more vocal critics of Michael, the upcoming biographical film about Jackson starring the late pop star’s nephew Jaafar Jackson, set to premiere on April 24. Last November, Fabio and fellow impersonator Michael Trapson called out what they described as wardrobe and stylistic inaccuracies in the film’s trailer, arguing that certain details about Jackson’s look and presentation had been handled carelessly by the production. Fabio has also spoken publicly about wishing he had auditioned for the lead role, describing the burden of impersonating someone of Jackson’s stature as something he takes seriously.
His placement in the Father video arrives at a moment when Jackson’s image is already back in heavy circulation ahead of the biopic’s release. Whether that timing was deliberate or coincidental, the effect is the same. A segment of the audience that came for West ended up spending most of their time talking about a man they had never heard of before today.
Michael Jackson impersonators Fabio Jackson and Michael Trapson criticized the new Michael Jackson biopic, saying it missed many key details about Michael Jackson 👀 pic.twitter.com/zq0dPwG7pd
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) November 20, 2025
The reception to Father and what comes next
The broader response to Father has been strongly positive. West has spent the last several years generating attention for reasons that had little to do with music, and the reaction to this video reflects something closer to the reception his work earned earlier in his career. The song and the visual are being praised widely, with the church setting and the surreal cast of characters drawing favorable comparisons to some of his more ambitious past projects.
West is scheduled to perform at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles next week. Whether Fabio Jackson will be anywhere near that stage is an open question, but after today, there is no shortage of people hoping the answer is yes.
SOURCE: TMZ