RIHANNA needed an SOS of her own last Friday at her concert in Sydney when she stumbled off stage mid-song.

The 20-year-old pop star was touring Australia with American R&B singer Chris Brown when she clutched her stomach and rushed backstage on her own in the middle of a duet version of Umbrella with Brown.

When Life! spoke to Rihanna on Sunday, she was vague about the episode, which has been caught on video by concert-goers who uploaded it onto YouTube. The video has received more than a million hits on the video sharing website.

She said over the phone from Sydney: 'I was a little short of breath and it got really intense and I could not breathe. After I was put on oxygen, I was better. So I'm good now.'

Pressed for details, she was curt: 'Can we not keep talking about this?'

Some Australian media reports said she had suffered from dehydration and exhaustion, although journalists did not know if she had indeed collapsed backstage halfway during the final song of the gig.

But fans here have little to worry about: She will carry on with her first-ever Singapore concert at the Indoor Stadium on Thursday.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times' Life!