Justin Bieber has blamed food poisoning for quitting the stage for the second time during his South America tour, drawing boos from a huge crowd who paid up to £200 to see their idol perform.
"I'm not feeling too good, I think I'm out of energy," he told the crowd in Buenos Aires' River Plate stadium, saying he was sorry and blowing a kiss before walking off the stage with his head hung low.
Bieber posted a "selfie" photo on Twitter showing himself receiving intravenous fluids, and his manager Scooter Braun came to his defence with a statement laying out a version of Bieber's wild weekend.
He said Bieber's food poisoning was so severe that he spent eight hours on an drip before Sunday night's show, and doctors advised cancelling, but that the young star did not want to disappoint his fans.
All the warm-up acts had come and gone by the time Bieber finally felt well enough to go onstage an hour and a half later than scheduled. He then performed for "nearly an hour" before he had to give up, Mr Braun said.
The manager did not mention the trail of trouble Bieber's tour has left in its wake.
The 19-year-old star also walked off the stage in Brazil, ending a concert early after someone threw a plastic bottle at him; a Brazilian prostitute posted pictures of him crashed in bed after a night at a strip club; and Brazilian police tried unsuccessfully to question him about defacing a public building with graffiti, a crime that carries a year's prison sentence.
In Argentina, girls caused such a nuisance outside the Faena hotel that Bieber had to leave. He then flew to Cordoba for a Friday night concert, and still had enough energy to take his entourage to a Buenos Aires nightclub early on Saturday morning.
A paparazzi videotape shows Bieber's bodyguards leaving the Ink club after daybreak, hustling someone out under a black sheet into one of two vans loaded with young girls. The bodyguards can then be seen chasing down and assaulting the nightclub's house photographer, Diego Pesoa, and damaging his camera.
The photographer's lawyer, Matias Morla, accused Bieber of approving the assault, and said his bodyguards also illegally entered the club's security area to review videotapes of the incident. He said he obtained a court order barring the guards from leaving the country.
After police tried to question the bodyguards at the second hotel, the entourage relocated yet again, to a private property inside a gated community north of the capital.
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