Justin Bieber‘s backstage collapse during his show on Thursday evening is only the most recent disaster on the medium-sized list of disasters the singer has encountered during his tour stop in London.
We should have guessed that the pop star was in trouble last week when paparazzi spotted him browsing London shops wearing a gas mask like it weren’t no thing. Then came Bieber’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 19th birthday. The Biebs showed up at a swanky London club dressed to the nines (leopard backpack? check! gold watch? check! other gold watch? double check!). But his entourage was allegedly held up at the door due to high school freshman Jaden Smith being, well, a 14-year-old high school freshman.
Then, this past Monday night, Bieber played the first of several shows at London’s O2 Arena but he must have still been feeling some residual birthday blues because he appeared on stage a full two hours late, causing some of his pint-sized fans to miss the performance entirely due to boring stuff like bed times and the fact that the trains taking them home to those beds stop running at 11pm. The Biebs’ tardiness ended up causing a (social media) riot. Angry parents who’d paid paid big bucks only to have to drag hysterical tweens home before the second song started, began lashing out at the singer via Twitter.
But even the bad karma being sent his way by London parents couldn’t get Bieber down. “Know this,” tweeted the singer in the wake of Monday’s debacle, “I’m only judged by one power, and I serve him. So yeah I will continue being me. I will continue to serve, to perform, to care, to love, to smile, to dance, to play, to sing… and you are welcome to join, because I carry no hate. We got too much love for that. I’m about the music.”
However, at last night’s show, Bieber was less about the music and more about putting his head between his knees and taking deep breaths. The pop star was only four songs shy of a complete set when he started to feel faint—and ran backstage to do just that. An emergency team revived him, giving him oxygen and suggesting that Bieber head to the hospital to get checked out. But Biebs, a true modern hero, “had to finish the show for his fans.” His efforts were rewarded with a huge standing ovation from the London crowd. Then he went to the hospital (where doctors will no doubt prescribe “not wearing a gas mask around” as the cure for the singer’s respiratory problems).
