RENOWNED R&B artist Usher started performing when he was only 12 years old and became a household name in the late 1990s.
The multi-award-winning singer and songwriter visited NPR’s office on June 30, 2022, for his Tiny Desk Concert.
Who is Usher?
Usher, whose full name is Usher Raymond IV is a 43-year-old American R&B singer and actor originally from Dallas, Texas, but raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
He joined his church choir when he was nine years old and was pushed further into music by his mom by the time he was 12 years old.
He recorded his first track for the 1993 movie Poetic Justice and dropped his first album, titled Usher, a year later without any success.
He went back to the drawing board and in 1997 he released his second album My Way which hit the no. 4 spot on Billboard’s Top 200.
“During the time between that first record and then the second record, I worked in silence,” Usher’s mother, Jonetta Patton, told Hollywood Life in 2020.
She spoke of his first album and hit song, My Way, saying “I didn’t tell the record label what I was doing. So now Usher said, ‘This time I’m gonna do it my way.’”
She continued, “See, they wanted him to be this bad boy image. Usher’s not a bad boy. That’s that whole image that they wanted. It didn’t work. So Usher said, ‘I’m gonna do it my way.’ And that’s basically what we did.
“So what see on ‘My Way,’ you just see raw talent.”
The album propelled him into the spotlight with three of his songs reaching the Top 10 including his chart-topping single Nice and Slow, and his songs You Make Me Wanna… and My Way reaching the no. 2 spot.
MOST READ IN TV
In 2008 Usher and Patton started working together when he rehired his mom as his manager.
Patton had managed Usher’s early career, but the arrangement broke down in 2007 before they started working together again a year later.
A source told PEOPLE at the time, “[Usher] wanted [Patton] to come back on board and she decided to,” adding that the reason was reportedly due to a drop in album sales.
His manager, Benny Medina stepped down, telling the outlet, “With an artist like Usher, the bar is set really high. Whether it was management, marketing or the music, we achieved a number one single and a number one album.
“It is a completely new day and time in music now. In four years, his audience, demographic, and musical direction has changed. Records like Lil Wayne’s ‘Lollipop’ are the type of phenomena that ‘Yeah’ was in 2004. I had a great time and we parted ways amicably.”
He won his first Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his song U Remind Me. He has since been nominated for 22 Grammys and has won eight Grammy Awards, 18 Billboard Music Awards, and eight American Music Awards, and was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016.
As of 2022, Usher has a net worth of $180million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
When did Usher perform at NPR’s office?
Usher performed his Tiny Desk Concert at NPR’s Washington, D.C. office on June 30 with hit songs You Make Me Wanna…, U Don’t Have to Call, and Confessions Part II.
He was invited as a guest singer to round off the end of Black Music Month and speaking to the audience, he said, “Being able to sing and just be joyous, there’s something about that that just ties us and brings us together.”
The performance was the first in-person NPR-hosted concert since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, and Usher spoke about the importance of collaborating with others.
“If life has taught us anything, it’s that we should share with each other,” he said, adding, “Not just the music but understanding that life is a collaborative process.
“Being able to lift each other up, stand with each other, you know. It’s what life is really about.”
What acting projects has Usher worked on?
Usher has dipped his toe into the acting world, popping up on TV and on the big screen.
He appeared in the Robert Rodriguez-directed, teen horror film The Faculty in 1998 and a year later played a DJ in the teen rom-com She’s All That, starring teen heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr and Rachel Leigh Cook, Matthew Lilliard, and Paul Walker.
Usher had a recurring role on The Bold and the Beautiful in 1998 and also on Moesha between 1997 and 1999.
In 2016, he went on to perform in the drama film Hands of Stone, about Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran, alongside Edgar Ramírez and Robert De Niro who took on the role of legendary coach Ray Arcel.
He was asked by the director to take on the role of boxing athlete Sugar Ray Leonard and he told The Mercury News at the time that the opportunity gave him the chance to preserve the legacy of Black athletes.
“It’s … what he represents to my people,” Usher told the outlet. “We’re a nomadic culture of people. We don’t speak our native tongue. We don’t … celebrate our native religions. So it’s important to make sure that these types of roles are executed right.”
He pushed himself in the role, losing 15 lbs and spending his free time researching Leonard’s background.
“I wanted to show the difference between macho and masculine. … There’s a very masculine side that no one ever got to know,” Usher said.
Is Usher married and does he have children?
Usher welcomed his first child, Usher Raymond V in 2007 with his then-wife Tameka Foster, and they welcomed their second son, Naviyd Ely Raymond, in 2008.
The couple divorced after only a year of marriage, and in 2015, he re-married executive chef and businesswoman, Michelle Grace Harry.
Their marriage lasted until 2018, and he met his current girlfriend, Jenn Goicoechae, who is the Vice President of A&R, Epic Records in 2019.
They have two children together, a 1-year-old daughter, Sovereign Bo Raymond and they welcomed their son, Sire Castrello Raymond in September 2021.
He spoke about his growing family in an interview on Good Morning America in July 2021 and said he “can’t wait” for his fourth child to arrive.
“I’m definitely enjoying this little baby boom of ours,” he said, adding, “This new addition to the family has just been exciting.”
