Britney Spears baffles fans as she returns to social media with tearful Justin Bieber reference

Britney Spears has surprised her fans as she returned to social media with a tearful Justin Bieber reference.

The 'Baby' singer sparked concerns among his fans earlier this week after uploading pictures of himself crying onto his social media.

Having ended his Justice World Tour early back last year to focus on his health, Bieber hasn't officially released any new music since 2022.

The 30-year-old cut short the tour early after revealing he had been diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a condition caused by the same virus as chickenpox (VSZ).

One particular video of Bieber went viral last year as he showed fans part of his face which was still temporarily paralysed.

Justin Bieber has concerned fans over recent months. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Further concern for Bieber has since arisen after he posted a series of snaps to Instagram over the weekend.

The first image showed the singer up on stage performing wearing a tracksuit and a cap, while the second sees Bieber wearing glasses on stage.

Other pics showed the back of the singer while he was on stage as well as a close-up shot of some marijuana.

But it was the last two photos in the dump that grabbed people's attention.

Donning a jumper and a green hat, Bieber appeared to be crying in the snaps, with many fans flocking to social media to express their concern for the singer.

Fans have become concerned for Bieber. (Instagram/ @justinbieber)

One Instagram user said: "Don't cry, my dear, otherwise I'll cry too."

"Justin, we are here for you brother," another added.

A third commented: "Plzz tell me why were u crying.. I'm dyyyiiinnggg to know !!"

His wife Hailey Bieber has also provided her reaction to the pictures.

And now, in a somewhat bizarre turn of events, Spears has seemingly provided her own take after sharing a dump of random images to her Instagram account just a day after she had deactivated it.

The singer showed off her nails, tanning her legs, and, of course, a photo of Bieber crying.

Britney Spears has baffled fans. (Bruce Gifford/FilmMagic)

She also included a motivational quote, a diagram of a woman's neck, and a photo of a horse.

"A wonderful dump of photos and videos as Sara my dog sh**s on us all !!! Have a nice day folks," the star captioned the photo dump.

The post has baffled a lot of fans, with one penning on X: "Lmao why is a pic of Justin being sad in Britney’s photo dump on Instagram."

UNILAD has reached out to Spears' representatives for comment.