Duffy Makes First Public Appearance in Years in TikTok ‘Mercy’ Remix Video

British singer Duffy has been off-the-radar for much of the past decade after revealing in 2020 that she was the victim of a terrifying assault and kidnapping five years earlier. The Grammy winner took her latest tentative step back into the spotlight this week when she made a brief cameo in a TikTok video posted by e.motion to promote an EDM remix of her signature 2008 hit “Mercy.”

The clip opens with what looks like contemporary footage of the 40-year-old belter born Aimée Anne Duffy in which she lip synchs the iconic chorus, “You got me begging you for mercy,” along to the revved-up version of the tune and gives the camera a sly wink. The two-second peek of Duffy then gives way to archival footage of her performing the song in the 25-second snippet.

The quick cameo came five years after Duffy shared an essay about what she said was a horrifying assault a decade ago that caused her to step back from public appearances. The post explained why the singer whose 2008 debut album, Rockferry, won the best pop vocal Grammy, disappeared from public view after 2010’s Endlessly album.

In it, she answered fans questions about where she’d been by explaining that she went into hiding after an incident in which she said she’d been drugged at a restaurant on her birthday and flown to a foreign country where she was held hostage in a hotel room for several weeks and sexually assaulted by unnamed perpetrators.

Back in June 2020, Duffy released her first single in years when she dropped the emotional ballad “River in the Sky,” on which she sings, “Like a river in the sky/ Why, oh why do we cry? Do we cry?” That same year, she also dropped the radio-only song “Something Beautiful.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

Check out Duffy’s “Mercy” remix cameo below.