Justin Bieber recovering after fainting at London concert

PHOTO: AP

Justin Bieber is recovering after fainting backstage at a concert in London. But when Bieber's manager announced what had happened, many fans in the audience were gasping and crying, while others kept cheering for him to return.

Jazz Chappell, a 20-year-old concertgoer who brought her younger sister and her friend to the show, said Bieber announced halfway throught the concert that he couldn't breathe and needed water.

Bieber resumed performing , but then had to be helped offstage by a backup dancer. In the nearly 30 minutes he was offstage, some fans started to leave.

In a video of the concert posted online, Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, appeared onstage and told the crowd that the singer was feeling "very low of breath" but would come back to finish the show.

Ms Chappell said Bieber, who's in London to perform four concerts at the O2, later returned and performed low-energy renditions of his hits "Boyfriend" and "Baby."

She said: "I thought, 'Give the guy a break. He just fainted. He's not a performing horse. Let him rest a second.' "

A spokeswoman for Bieber said late on Thursday March 7 that the 19-year-old pop star was given oxygen and took a 20-minute break after fainting backstage at London's O2 Arena.

Bieber later posted a shirtless photo of himself in a hospital bed that night with the caption: "Gettin better listening to Janis Joplin." Before that on Twitter he thanked "everyone pulling me thru tonight."

He wrote: "Best fans in the world. Figuring out what happened."

"Thanks for the love."

The incident comes at the end of a difficult week for Bieber. Earlier in the week, he was forced to apologise to outraged fans after he allegedly appeared almost two hours late for his first concert at the O2 on Monday, March 4.

He insisted he was only 40 minutes late and blamed "technical issues" for his delay. He took to Twitter to vent his frustrations with the media's portrayal of the incident.

Bieber's Friday night concert at the O2 remained scheduled as of today.

(Source: AP)