Usher

Usher's position at the forefront of R&B spans the post-new jack swing mid-'90s through the genre's flirtations with Afrobeats and amapiano. Primed early for the spotlight, the singer, songwriter, and dancer started in the church and vaulted quickly from Star Search contestant to major-label signee. Although "Call Me a Mack" (1993) was a lofty declaration from a 14 year-old on his debut single, it wasn't long before Usher gained control of a fully developed, flexible tenor voice and could lay valid claim to the R&B throne. My Way (1997) followed the modest success of his self-titled debut with a barrage of Jermaine Dupri-produced singles that either topped or nearly topped Billboard Hot 100. After scoring his second Top Ten album and first Grammy, respectively with 8701 (2001) and its "U Remind Me," the singer went supernova with Confessions (2004). The source of four distinct number one pop hits, from the party-starting Lil Jon collaboration "Yeah!" to the romantic Alicia Keys duet "My Boo," Confessions won a Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album and earned a rare diamond platinum certification. More trips to the top of the album chart were made with Here I Stand (2008), Raymond v Raymond (2010), and Looking 4 Myself (2012), a period during which shrewd collaborations such as "Love in This Club" (featuring Jeezy), "OMG" (produced by and featuring will.i.am), and "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" (with Pitbull) did much to maintain Usher's commercial momentum. (The latter two were among the era's biggest crossover EDM hits.) Less prolific from that point onward, Usher returned to the Top Ten in the mid-2010s with Hard II Love (2016), teamed with Zaytoven for the comparatively low-profile "A" (2018), and not until the mid-2020s offered his cosmopolitan ninth album, Coming Home (2024), issued after he completed a 100-show Las Vegas residency.

From 🇺🇸 United States