Russia's Sergey Lazarev was addressing the crowd during the Saint Petersburg performance of his tour 'The Best Show' in the lead up to Eurovision 2016, when his head suddenly appeared to loll before he dropped to the ground.
Bewildered fans continued to clap and cheer the performance, clearly unaware that anything was wrong, perhaps thinking it was part of the performance. It wasn't until the lights went out and Lazarev's back-up dancers appeared onstage to carry him off that it became clear something was wrong.
The whole incident was captured by fans on camera and shared to YouTube:
Lazarev has been as a likely winner of Eurovision 2016 and is also a clear fan favourite - with good reason too. The Singer/Actor/TV Presenter is a consummate performer with years of experience and is not usually prone to onstage missteps - making Saturday's incident all the more surprising.
The multi-talented performer has clearly been pushing himself particularly hard lately though, performing at Russia's Eurovision pre-party just last week, before returning to tread the boards at a theatre production at Pushkin Theatre, in addition to running his pet business, 'Confectionary for Pets', on the side!
According to the star, all is now well though as he shared the follow post to Instagram updating fans following the fainting incident, saying that it was just as much a shock to him as it was to them, and admitting that he had perhaps been pushing his body too hard.
Lazarev's post translates to:
"Dear friends! Frankly, I myself shocked by the fact that yesterday happened to me on stage in St. Petersburg! I could not expect that such a body will fail, especially in such an important moment for me as a favorite concert in St. Petersburg, where I was waiting for! Yes, I am in a concert tour, and play performances in the theater, actively rehearsing and getting ready to represent our country at the Eurovision Song Contest in May perhaps, all this as a whole, slightly weakened my body and persistent, he decided to show me in the last few months, sometimes he had to pay a little more attention.
Friends, I apologize to all the spectators in St. Petersburg and Tallinn (planned concert April 10), for the inconvenience caused by the transfer of concerts in June !! All tickets are valid! So, see you at Tallinn June 4
The St. Petersburg June 9 !!
Thank you for understanding!"
Here's hoping that Lazarev makes a full recovery and looks after himself so he'll be able to give a mind-blowing performance onstage at Stockholm in May. In the meantime, check out his banger of an official song entry, 'You Are the Only One' to see why everyone has him tipped as a favourite to win:
