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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.

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Usher says his Super Bowl halftime show will be longer than past shows: ‘That was a huge strategic thing’

[ February 07, 2024 ]

Viewers of this upcoming Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime show might notice a little something extra: time.

Usher, the velvety-voiced King of R&B and all-around ageless hottie, tells EW that he and his team were very “strategic” while creating his supersized Las Vegas performance.

While most performers are tasked with condensing their entire music catalog into an incredibly tight show that runs around 13 minutes, Usher reveals that he managed to get 15.

“I can’t explain why, but it’s a funny thing that I was able to do and craft,” Usher explains ahead of the big game. “That was a huge strategic thing that happened between me and my agency.“

The 45-year-old says he’s not nervous about performing on the biggest stage in the world (“Anxiety, but no, not nerves”), which he sees as a culmination of his Vegas residency that ran for two years and 100 shows. The Super Bowl will be his 101st show and thus, he says, a time for him to “finally celebrate” what he accomplished.

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Usher Drops Super Bowl Merch

[ February 07, 2024 ]

Exclusive merchandise by Usher has been released in honor of his Super Bowl performance! You can purchase yours here!

USHER: PAST PRESENT FUTURE

[ February 06, 2024 ]

Usher is going on tour in the United States! Check out the dates below.

  • 08.20 WASHINGTON, DC
  • 08.24 BALTIMORE, MD
  • 08.27 BOSTON, MA
  • 08.30 PHILADELPHIA, PA
  • 09.02 TORONTO, ON
  • 09.03 TORONTO, ON
  • 09.06 BROOKLYN, NY
  • 09.07 BROOKLYN, NY
  • 09.12 DETROIT, MI
  • 09.17 DENVER, CO
  • 09.21 LOS ANGELES, CA
  • 09.22 LOS ANGELES, CA
  • 09.28 OAKLAND, CA
  • 09.29 OAKLAND, CA
  • 10.04 DALLAS, IX
  • 10.07 AUSTIN, TX
  • 10.11 MIAMI, FL
  • 10.12 MIAMI, FL
  • 10.17 ATLANTA, GA
  • 10.18 ATLANTA, GA
  • 10.22 CHARLOTTE, NC
  • 10.26 ST LOUIS, MO
  • 10.28 CHICAGO, IL
  • 10.29 CHICAGO, IL

Usher For Skims

[ February 05, 2024 ]

Usher is known for his one-of-a-kind style, but for his latest partnership with SKIMS, the hitmaker is stripping down to his underwear.

With the count down to six days until the eight-time Grammy Award-winning artist headlines the Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Usher is already having the best week ever, as it’s been revealed he’s fronting the latest mens campaign for Kim Kardashian’s loungewear, shapewear and underwear brand. 

The imagery, which was revealed today, shows the entertainment icon, 45, modeling pieces from two of the existing and often sold out menswear collections, including the SKIMS Stretch 5” Boxer in Midnight the and SKIMS Cotton. 5” Boxer in Military. (He’s also decked out in various pieces of jewelry from Jacquie Aiche.)

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New Video: Ruin

[ February 02, 2024 ]

Usher has released a video for his song, “Ruin”. The track is featured on his upcoming album “Coming Home” as track number 10 on the album.

On his new track “Ruin,” Usher jumps on the Afrobeats wave, which makes total sense. He recorded “Ruin” with Pheelz, a Nigerian producer known for working with artists like Davido and Olamide. Usher doesn’t tweak his style too hard to suit the sound. Instead, he sings in a a virtuosic wounded-romantic falsetto, never trying to put on a fake accent or anything.

For the “Ruin” video, Usher reunites with big-deal video director Dave Meyers; the two of them made the awesomely ridiculous “U Remind Me” video together 23 years ago. The clip, shot entirely in a very fancy house, starts out as Usher bidding farewell to various insanely beautiful past lovers and ends with him singing to his daughter.

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.

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