Story highlights
NEW: Bieber will perform Friday night as scheduled
He paused a London concert to get backstage treatment, representative says
He finished the show and checked into a hospital as a precaution
Justin Bieber has had a rough week.
After celebrating his “worst birthday” on March 1 and angering concertgoers at London’s O2 Arena on Monday when he was late to the stage, the pop singer had to take a break from his concert on Thursday to receive “oxygen and treatment backstage,” his representative said.
During the show, the pop star’s manager Scooter Braun told the crowd that Bieber was “backstage with the EMTs and the doctor” after getting “very light of breath,” in a statement posted on YouTube.
To the cheers of fans, Braun went on to say, “He has just told me … he’s going to come out and finish the show.”
After the concert, he was taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure and was released early Friday.
“He’s been released from the hospital early this a.m. after a check-up and while he’s feeling a little under the weather, he’s planning on going ahead with tonight’s show,” the representative said later in the day.
Bieber took to his official Twitter account after the incident, thanking fans for sticking with him: “getting better. thanks for everyone pulling me thru tonight. best fans in the world. figuring out what happened. thanks for the love.”
On Instagram, Bieber said he was “Gettin better listening to Janice Joplin” in a picture that showed the shirtless singer apparently lounging in a hospital room with a pair of headphones on.
Fan response on Twitter was universally supportive.
“Take it easy, try not to work yourself too hard,” said one fan.
“Hope you’re feeling better Justin, love you x,” said another.
This was Bieber’s third of four scheduled shows at the arena.
On Monday, he kept thousands of young fans and their tired, outraged parents up past their bedtimes after reportedly arriving on stage nearly two hours late for a sold-out show at the same arena.
Bieber was greeted by choruses of boos from the crowd.
Minutes into his performance, throngs of sobbing school-aged “Beliebers” were hauled away by parents desperate to catch the last trains home on a school night.
The singer eventually took to Twitter to say that he was only 40 minutes late to the stage, but “there is no excuse for that and I apologize for anyone we upset.”
Not even Bieber’s 19th birthday on March 1 would be a high point of the “Boyfriend” singer’s less than stellar week.
“Worst birthday,” he tweeted after celebrating at a London nightclub. Reports suggested that he tried to bring underage friends into the club, but he shared his side of the story via Instagram:
“I love how the club wanted to give the press another reason to why we didn’t stay at their weak a– club so they wouldn’t look bad for me walking in and right back out.”
Concerned fans have been tweeting the hashtag #JustinTakeBreak with encouraging messages such as, “Justin, your Beliebers love you no matter what, please take a break your health is important to us” and “He’s over working himself to make us proud, not being able to breathe while performing is not okay, it’s not healthy.”
And it seems Bieber is keeping his head up. Earlier this week he wrote, “It ain’t always easy but is what it is. Gonna stay focused. I see and saw all the posts from around the world. U got me smiling. Love u. Thank u.”
CNN’s Stephanie Goldberg contributed to this report.