Sam Smith taking Twitter hiatus

Singer Sam Smith is shutting down his Twitter account "for a while", a day after he was forced to defend his Academy Awards speech.

The British star, who struck gold for his "Spectre" theme tune "Writing's on the Wall", took to the micro-blogging site to tell fans he was going offline, but insisted his absence wouldn't be permanent.

"I'm logging off for a while," he wrote, before making a James Bond quip.

"Some Martinis shaken not stirred are definitely in order."

His news comes just a day after he responded to critics who had blasted him for falsely assuming he was the first openly gay man to win an Oscar.