Justin Bieber Recovering After Fainting at London Show
Justin Bieber was reportedly hospitalized after he fainted backstage last night during a concert at London’s O2 Arena, but the teen-pop singer plans to go ahead with his final show there tonight.
Bieber’s rep told The Associated Press that the singer was given oxygen and took a 20-minute break after passing out backstage. The pop star later posted a photo of himself in what looked like a hospital bed, shirtless and wearing headphones, with the caption, “Gettin better listening to Janis Joplin.”
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The 19-year-old singer appeared to flag during a performance of “Beauty and a Beat,” based on a fan-shot video that shows Bieber leaning over with his hands on his legs, as if he was trying to catch his breath, before he slowly walked to the back of the stage.
“When he started ‘Beauty and a Beat’ you could see he was struggling,” said Prithvi Pandya, the 18-year-old journalism student who shot the video. “He took lots of drinks of water, that seemed unusual, and he was really sweaty, sweating a helluva lot. Toward the end of it, he went backstage. We didn’t see him fainting. They brought on dancers to entertain, and I knew something was wrong at that point.”
The singer later returned to perform what the AP described as “low-energy renditions” of “Boyfriend” and “Baby.”
After the show, Bieber tweeted, “thanks for everyone pulling me thru tonight. best fans in the world. figuring out what happened. thanks for the love.”
The incident was the latest in what has been a rocky stint in London: the singer showed up two hours late to his first O2 Arena show, angering young fans and their parents; and last week tweeted that turning 19 was his “worst birthday.” He complained earlier this week on Twitter about the media writing “fake stories to sell papers.”
A spokesman for O2 Arena said that Bieber has been released from the hospital, and that tonight’s show is scheduled to go ahead as planned.