It was her only televised performance of the year but Selena Gomez's return to the American Music Awards stage was widely panned by viewers accusing her of lip syncing.

The singer took to the AMA stage for a widely hyped "live" rendition of Wolves, her latest single with Marshmello, that left fans wanting.

"If only she didn't lip sync it would've been a great performance," one Twitter user lamented.

A second slammed: "So Selena Gomez's big comeback they've been shoving down our throats for a month was her lip syncing and rolling around on the floor?"

But the more loyal among Gomez's followers leapt to the defence of the 25-year-old, who recently underwent a kidney transplant as a result of her battle with autoimmune disease lupus.

They claim that Gomez suffered a panic attack during the song, saying that it explained her lacklustre performance and "sad" demeanour.

"There was a rumour that Selena had a panic attack during her performance, we don't know how true this is but could be why she looked sad throughout," the Selena Gomez News account tweeted.

There was a rumor that Selena had a panic attack during her performance, we don't know how true this is but could be why she looked sad throughout 😔.but no matter what we are grateful for everything she has done and #WeAreProudOfSelena. #SelenaxAMAs #AMAs. pic.twitter.com/6MDukNfSwO

— Selena Gomez News (@LifeWithSelG) November 20, 2017

"The fact that Selena had a panic attack before going on stage and then actually performing is both heartbreaking but shows just how strong she really is," another wrote.

While there's been no official word from Gomez about the rumours, she has been uncharacteristically quiet on social media since the show save for an Instagram story in which she distractedly thanks fans for their support.

Gomez's appearance at the awards show comes just two weeks after she split from The Weeknd and was snapped cuddling up to on-again, off-again boyfriend Justin Bieber.