Rihanna Slams Britney Spears' MTV Critics

American r&b star Rihanna has slammed critics of Britney Spears’ performance at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month (September 9th).

Spears’ long awaited TV comeback was widely criticised because of the singers out of time lip synching and dance routines.

Rihanna has leapt to Britney’s defence, however, blaming the pressure of her ongoing child custody battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline for the shambolic performance, reports yahoo music.

"You can't judge her performance without knowing what was going on with her personally. She had so much pressure for that one performance,” explained Rihanna.

"I'm telling you, it's not easy being on that stage. I performed for a minute and a half, and I was extremely nervous," she added. "To have the amount of pressure that Britney had? I don't know what I would've done. She did her best, so leave her alone."

Spears new, as-yet-untitled album is due for release on November 13th. The album will be preceded by the single, ‘Gimme More.’