British soul star Sam Smith battled through a cold as he hit the stage for the inaugural German leg of the Lollapalooza festival on Sunday (13Sep15).

The Stay With Me hitmaker, who underwent an operation to treat a vocal cord hemorrhage in May (15), took to Instagram.com early on Sunday to reveal he wasn't feeling his best as he prepared for the performance.

Alongside a photo of himself looking a little worse for wear, he wrote, "steaming and stuffing my face with vitamin C right now to try and get rid of this cold".

His efforts helped to ease his symptoms and he returned to social media four hours later to share a new picture of a smiling Smith, which he captioned, "Feeling a little bit better. Gonna try and power through".

He was able to press ahead with the hits-packed show, and after his set, Lollapalooza Berlin organizers expressed their appreciation to Smith for not pulling out of the set, tweeting, "So glad you made it, @samsmithworld!".

Other performers during the two-day event, a spin-off of rocker Perry Farrell's original Chicago, Illinois bash, included Muse, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Run the Jewels, Bastille and Fat Boy Slim.