Updates

00001.jpg
 00001.jpg
 00001.jpg
 00002.jpg
 00001.jpg
 00001.jpg
 00001.jpg
 00001.jpg
 00001.jpg
 Usher-Quad-30x40.jpg
 00001.jpg
 00001.jpg

Usher says no one is surpassing Michael Jackson’s impact: “Everybody has their space in history”

[ September 15, 2024 ]
When it comes to an artist exceeding Michael Jackson’s influence, Usher is certain who wins the debate between him and Chris Brown

BY Angelina Velasquez

What would music look and sound like without the influence of Michael Jackson, the world’s biggest and most iconic pop star to grace the global stage? We may never know for sure, but the generation of entertainers who used his career as a blueprint to chart their own success makes his impact undeniable.

Usher is among the artists who have found ways to weave hints of the “Thriller” superstar into his performances and stage persona, dance moves included. But if you were to ask him who, if anyone, might be the second coming of Jackson, he wouldn’t name himself or any other pop-R&B act.

“The same as in history, there’s been inspiration that defines who and inspired who I am. There will only be one Little Richard. There will only be one James Brown. There will only be one Michael Jackson. There will only be one Prince. There will only be one Usher,” he told The Associated Press. “So with that, everybody has their space in history. I’m just trying to make certain that we remember it.”

The eight-time Grammy Award-winner released his ninth studio album, Coming Home, performed at the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show, launched a world tour, PAST PRESENT FUTURE, and has been receiving his flowers for his decades-long career all year. He is currently promoting his international concert film, USHER: RENDEZVOUS IN PARIS, that completes its three-day run in AMC Theaters on Sunday (Sept. 15).

Read the rest of this entry »

Usher brings romance to the biggest stage in America: The Super Bowl

[ February 09, 2024 ]

BY MARISSA EVANS / Photography by MARIAH TAUGER

You can see galaxies in Usher Raymond IV’s eyes.

They twinkle as he speaks, no matter how little lighting there is in a room. His deep gaze, soft and curious, makes you wonder what he sees in your humanity, whether it’s beauty, intelligence, kindness, warmth or something else. You have to consider when is the last time someone has looked into your eyes with such attentiveness. You could fall into his dimples when he smiles. His voice is rich and velvety. His hugs are warm. He is a deep sigh of dreaminess personified.

It comes naturally to a man who has made romance part of his legacy for three decades and done soul searching on how he thinks about love. He’s intentional in so many things he does, including lighting a candle in the home theater of a lavish Beverly Hills home “for the vibe” before opening up about who he is as a human and an artist.

“I wanted you to feel cool and feel the energy,” Usher said. “Maybe it was something about that candle that was lit that just changed the vibe in the room, the tone that I speak to you in, looking you in your eyes when I actually talk to you, that probably makes you feel a little bit more safe and like we’re really connected in this moment.”

Recently, the R&B icon’s run of sold-out Vegas residencies, a new album and headlining the Super Bowl half-time show have sparked renewed admiration from veteran and young fans alike. On Tuesday, the singer announced the “Usher: Past, Present, Future” tour, a 24-city trek launching in August. Usher’s moment in the spotlight in the heart of America’s biggest game will be a legacy-defining moment not only for himself but for romance and R&B.

In the years since Usher started his career in the early 1990s, our ideas of intimacy have evolved dramatically. Women are reconsidering the merits of singledom and men are facing a potential loneliness epidemic. Same-sex marriage is legal, polyamory and nonmonogamous relationships are becoming less taboo, people are realizing they are asexual, and the love of your life could be one swipe away on dating apps. Every other week the internet debates whether getting coffee or ice cream is a worthy first date and tries to quantify what effort in dating should look like. Romance, in our love lives and platonic relationships, often feels fleeting when love languages are easily lost in translation and the slow burn of vulnerability and trust building feels exhausting.

Read the rest of this entry »

Interview: Club Shay Shay

[ January 31, 2024 ]

Usher stopped by Club Shay Shay and he really talked about everything. He spoke about where he is now in his career, where he’s been, and what he plans to for the future. Check out the interview below:

Usher: Gentleman, Comeback King, Super Bowl MVP

[ January 17, 2024 ]
BY ALESSANDRA CODINHA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAMPBELL ADDY / STYLED BY MAX ORTEGA

From certain high perches in Henderson, Nevada, where made-to-order modernist mansions bloom across the terraced mountain ranges, the city of Las Vegas unfurls below you like a magic carpet. On a recent fall afternoon, Usher Raymond IV, the 45-year-old artist known the world over simply as Usher, took in the view from the head of his outdoor dining table, his goldendoodle, Scarlett, asleep at his feet. “When is the last time you looked in a mirror and really looked at yourself?” he asks. That morning, I say. “When you looked in that mirror, did you tell yourself you loved yourself? Did you tell yourself that you forgive yourself?” Reader, I had. But only because when we spoke the prior afternoon Usher had suggested it. “I did, too, this morning,” he says, with a flash of his famous megawatt grin. “It’s a little psyched-​out to say this, but it made me feel good. I was like: You need to look at yourself and say: Hey, whatever you’re dealing with, I love you.”

Here’s what Usher is dealing with: the physical demands of a so-sold-out-they-extended-it-twice Las Vegas residency (Usher: My Way, The Vegas Residency) for which, three nights a week, until December 2nd, he would be almost constantly singing, dancing, and occasionally roller-​skating, all through an R&B fantasia, replete with exotic dancers, a peach-shaped disco ball, and several costume changes and elaborate set pieces. (Not unrelatedly, he has a bunion that requires surgery.) He’s also recording a new album, Coming Home, his ninth, all while planning the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show, the biggest single televised moment of his career. He’ll be maintaining this momentum past the show, he tells me, and seeing his therapist and doing his daily meditation practice and working out and eating right and being a good partner and raising four children, two of them under the age of four here at this sleek five-bedroom home his family found for the Vegas run.

Read the rest of this entry »

Usher talks about Superbowl Performance on Good Morning America

[ January 15, 2024 ]

Usher Talks Being a Dad While Previewing New ‘My Way’ Vegas Residency

[ July 18, 2022 ]

Usher is back in Las Vegas with “My Way: The Las Vegas Residency” at the Dolby Live at Park MGM, and he’s talking to “Extra” about this new show following a successful run with his first at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Usher also opened up about his good friend Justin Bieber, with whom he recently vacationed in Idaho after Justin’s his Ramsay Hunt syndrome diagnosis.

“As an artist, I think we are all going to experience some things that people may not necessarily understand,” Usher said, referencing a performer’s life being “a life that comes with a great deal of pressure.“

He went on to say, “I think [Justin] has obviously taken the world on a journey. I am happy that I was at the beginning of and I am still a part of to this day, as a friend.”

Revealing how Bieber is doing, Usher said, “He is doing great. Seeing him on vacation, we managed to hang out with each other, and I think that whatever he may be experiencing right now it’s actually really great to see that he has the support from his fans and his family.”

Usher is giving the fans “My Way,” but the show is really their way. He said, “It’s all about giving the ladies what they want to see, you know? It’s about giving Vegas something they may not have experienced before… It’s a bit theatrical… So many things throughout my career — Broadway, acting, skating, hit records, dancing — I try to put all of those things into my show. I’ve played arenas and stadiums, but to be here at Dolby Live theater and give them this intimate view of my music and also to share with them the things that I am passionate about and the places that I’ve gone… whether it’s the heat of the strip club or the intimacy of the moments that’s nice and slow… It’s all of that into one.”

Usher is also bringing roller skating to his Vegas stage! “It’s something that I have always loved and is authentically Atlanta culture… You listen to ‘Good Love.‘ We shot it in Atlanta at Cascade, where I am at either on Sundays or Wednesdays when I am in Atlanta. It’s the culture. It’s the culture that I have always loved.”

Read the rest of this entry »