1978-present
Latest News: Usher Will Headline the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime Show
Get ready to say “Yeah!” at Super Bowl LVIII. Usher is headlining the halftime show for the NFL championship game, which will be held in Las Vegas on February 11, 2024. That’s the same day as the release of Coming Home, Usher’s ninth solo studio album and his first new album in eight years. The Super Bowl performance will mark Usher’s first time starring in the prestigious halftime show. “It’s an honor of a lifetime to finally check a Super Bowl performance off my bucket list,” the 44-year-old said. “I can’t wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they’ve seen from me before.”
Who Is Usher?
R&B singer and pop artist Usher is an eight-time Grammy winner best known for his best-selling album Confessions as well as the songs “Yeah!,” “Nice & Slow,” “U Remind Me,” and “My Boo,” a duet with Alicia Keys. He entered the fame game at age 14, after a performance on Star Search led to a recording contract with LaFace Records. Usher released his first album in 1994, at age 15, and began dominating airwaves later that decade. In 2004, Confessions brought even greater success; his first No. 1 album sold more than 1 million copies in its first week and led to three Grammy Awards. His most recent album is 2016’s Hard II Love. Usher is currently performing a Las Vegas residency, scheduled to wrap up in December 2023.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Usher Terry Raymond IV
BORN: October 14, 1978
BIRTHPLACE: Dallas, Texas
SPOUSES: Tameka Foster (2007-2009) and Grace Miguel (2015-2018)
CHILDREN: Usher V, Naviyd, Sovereign, and Sire
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra
Early Years
Usher Terry Raymond IV was born on October 14, 1978, in Dallas and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He began singing in his church choir when he was 6 years old. Two years after moving with his mother and brother to Atlanta, Usher performed on the hit talent competition show Star Search and landed a recording contract with LaFace Records soon after. He released his self-titled first album in 1994, at age 15. Usher soon became known for his polished vocals, broad vocal range, chic style, sexy dance moves, and sensual ballads.
Songs and Albums
Since the late 1990s, Usher has been a dominant player in the music industry. He’s moved across several different musical genres, including R&B, blues, and pop, with his eight solo studio albums.
Following Usher (1994), he released his second album, My Way, in 1997. The album—including singles “Nice & Slow,” which became Usher’s first No. 1 hit, and “You Make Me Wanna...”—skyrocketed the young artist to fame, selling more than 7 million copies to date. Usher was quickly lauded for his fluid vocals and addictive melodies. He also became known for incorporating sexual themes into his songs, performances, and music videos.
Usher released 8701 in 2001. The incredibly successful album included the No. 1 song “U Got It Bad” as well as two Grammy Award–winning singles: “U Remind Me” and “U Don’t Have to Call.” More than 4 million copies of 8701 have been sold in the United States alone.
A decade after making his first album, Usher released Confessions (2004), which was extremely well-received. More than 1 million copies of the album were sold in its first week, and sales have accumulated to nearly 20 million copies worldwide. The No. 1 album included the No. 1 songs “Burn,” “Confessions Part II,” and “Yeah!,” a collaboration with Ludacris and Lil Jon that held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks. Billboard later named “Yeah!” the Hot 100 Single of the Year. “My Boo,” a duet with Alicia Keys, also released in 2004 and landed him another No. 1 song.
By this time, Usher had an incredibly impressive track record: He had achieved 13 Top 20 hits, seven of which were No. 1 singles. He was named Artist of the Year at the 2004 Billboard Music Awards. A year later, he received three Grammy Awards—Best Contemporary R&B Album for Confessions, Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group for “My Boo,” and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Yeah!”—and two People’s Choice Awards.
Fans were eager for Usher’s next effort, Here I Stand, which released in 2008. The album quickly captured the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 and is largely remembered for its No. 1 single “Love In This Club” featuring Young Jeezy. The song went platinum within two months of its release, and the album followed. After the release of Raymond v. Raymond (2010), Usher won two more Grammys for Best Contemporary R&B Album and Best Male R&B Performance on “There Goes My Baby.” In all, the singer has won eight Grammys and 19 Billboard Music Awards, among other honors.
In June 2012, he produced Looking 4 Myself, which was his fourth consecutive album to find a No. 1 spot on Billboard’s albums chart. In September 2016, User released his eighth studio album, Hard II Love, that featured the singles “No Limit,” “Crash,” “Missin U,” and “Rivals.” It was first made available exclusively through the streaming service Tidal, which Usher co-owns with Jay-Z and other big-name musicians, but was later made available on other streaming services as well.
Usher plans to release his ninth studio album, Coming Home, on February 11, 2024. That the same day, he will headline the halftime show for Super Bowl LVIII, which will be held in Las Vegas. “It’s an honor of a lifetime to finally check a Super Bowl performance off my bucket list,” Usher said. “I can’t wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they’ve seen from me before.”
Movies and TV Roles
Outside of music, Usher has worked as a movie and stage actor. One of his earliest roles was in the teen horror film The Faculty (1998). He went on to make guest appearances on several television shows, including a role as Marvin Gaye on the program American Dreams (2002). In 2005, Usher played a disc jockey in the movie In the Mix, and a year later, he landed the lead role of Billy Flynn in the Broadway play Chicago (2006).
In March 2013, Usher returned to reality TV, this time as a judge and coach. He and Latin singer Shakira joined NBC’s popular singing competition show The Voice for Season 4. Replacing Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera, Usher and Shakira starred on the show alongside returning judges/coaches Adam Levine and Blake Shelton. Usher soon won over TV viewers with his offbeat coaching style. Despite this success, he sat out the next season before returning for Season 6, which his protégé Josh Kaufman won.
Philanthropy and Business Ventures
Usher also stays busy with his charity, New Look Foundation, which was founded in 1999. The organization provides funding for children in foster care and service programs, holds conferences and camps for at-risk youth, and works to promote leadership skills for kids in impoverished communities. For his work with the nonprofit, Usher has received honors from such groups as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Trumpet Foundation, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Additionally, Usher has invested in several entrepreneurial endeavors. He owns the record label US Records and a men’s cologne line. He also is a part-owner in the music streaming service Tidal and is a co-owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team.
Children and Girlfriend
In the early 2000s, Usher dated Chili, a former member of the all-female group TLC. In 2007, he married Tameka Foster. Usher and Foster have two children together: Usher Raymond V, born in 2007, and Naviyd, born in 2008. The couple divorced in 2009.
In July 2012, Foster’s 11-year-old son from a previous relationship (Usher’s stepson), Kyle Glover, suffered a severe brain injury in a water accident. According to several media reports, Glover had been riding on an inflatable tube on Lake Lanier in Atlanta when a jet ski struck him in the head and knocked him unconscious. After being rushed to a local hospital, Glover was declared brain dead by doctors.
Tragedy struck Usher’s family again the following August. His son Usher Raymond V got caught in a pool drain at the singer’s Atlanta home. Usher’s aunt was watching the child when the incident happened and had tried to free the boy. The child was taken to a nearby hospital and survived his injuries.
After this accident, Usher’s ex-wife Tameka Foster launched a legal battle to regain custody of the couple’s two children. She claims that the singer was “not capable of providing daily caregiving and supervision for the minor children” in her legal filing, according to CNN. But the judge in the case disagreed with Foster and allowed Usher to retain custody of the children.
In September 2015, Usher married his longtime girlfriend and manager Grace Miguel, who is a top executive at Def Jam Records. After two years of marriage, they announced their separation in March 2018.
In September 2020, Usher and his girlfriend Jenn Goicoechea welcomed a daughter named Sovereign Bo. The next September, the pair had their second child together, whose name is Sire Castrello.
Quotes
- Sleeping is forbidden at the age of 22. It’s all work and no play.
- Down time is not the name of the game.
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Colin McEvoy joined the Biography.com staff in 2023, and before that had spent 16 years as a journalist, writer, and communications professional. He is the author of two true crime books: Love Me or Else and Fatal Jealousy. He is also an avid film buff, reader, and lover of great stories.
