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Usher Terry Raymond IV (born October 14, 1978), who performs under the mononym Usher, is an American R&B/Pop singer-songwriter, dancer, and occasional actor. His overall discography consists of eight studio albums, one live album, eight compilations, one extended play, and 52 singles.

To date, he has shipped 22.5 million albums in the US, and a combined 65 million records worldwide. He has attained nine Hot 100 number-one hits (all as a lead artist) and sixteen Hot 100 top-ten hits on the Billboard Music charts. In addition to his work as a recording artist, Usher has acted in several films, is part-owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, owns several restaurants, has his own cologne, and has served as a contestant mentor on American Idol. He was also a panelist on seasons 4 and 6 of The Voice and was the victorious coach of the latter season. He was also the headliner of the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show in 2024.

Discography:

  • Usher (1994)
  • My Way (1997)
  • 8701 (2001)
  • Confessions (2004)
  • Here I Stand (2008)
  • Raymond v. Raymond (2010)
  • Versus (2010)
  • Looking 4 Myself (2012)
  • Hard II Love (2016)
  • “A” (2018) (collaboration with producer Zaytoven)
  • Coming Home (2024)

Filmography:


Tropes that apply to Usher's works:

  • Aesop Amnesia: The man has made an awful lot of songs where he apologizes to a woman for cheating on her.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: In Season 4 of The Voice, it's revealed that, as a coach, Usher has some very... eccentric... ways to train his singers to be better. The best example might be when he gave singer Michelle Chamuel instructions to drop and do push ups, then jump up and start singing, as a means to increase her breath control. Also, he gave Chamuel the Cyndi Lauper classic "True Colors" (a song about never giving up and believing in yourself) for use in a Playoffs performance, and during rehearsals instructed her to sing the song to herself in a mirror, as a way to get her to get her to open up to the audience more. It worked.
  • Darker and Edgier: The "Chains" music video and interactive website is easily the darkest song he has ever done.
  • Eleventy Zillion: "Burn" has this:
    "It's been fifty-eleven days, umpteen hours,
    I'm gonna be burnin' 'til you return!"
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: “OMG”. The G stands for "Gosh".
  • Hip Hop Soul: His first single, "Call Me A Mack", was a New Jack Swing song, but all of his releases afterwards used Hip Hop Soul.
  • In Da Club: The video for his single "Yeah!" certainly applies, complete with slow motion effects.
  • Intercourse with You: "Love In This Club", "Yeah", "Nice and Slow", "Trading Places", and "Scream".
  • Mr. Fanservice: Not above taking his shirt off in multiple videos, as well as his concerts and a few live TV performances.
  • New Sound Album: Looking 4 Myself, which is a lot poppier than his previous albums. Unfortunately, this change in style lost him a lot of fans.
  • Only One Name: Has gone by Usher for his entire career. Occasionally, his last name is mentioned, but in rare instances.
  • Seven Dirty Words: A censored motherfucker in "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love".
  • Sampling: "A-Town Girl" samples and interpolates "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel.
  • Spelling Song:
    • Spells out U-S-H-E-R R-A-Y-M-O-N-D in "Nice and Slow".
    • Spells out A-T-L-A-N-T-A in "A-Town Girl".
  • Stage Name: Subverted in that Usher is his real name too, so he just left out the Raymond IV part.
  • The Casanova: Has been romantically involved with Chilli of TLC, Naomi Campbell, Rihanna, Tameka Foster, Mya, Karrine "Superhead" Steffans, and Maya-Fox Davis before marrying his wife Grace Miguel.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: During his earlier career, videos or TV appearances where he was wearing anything on his torso were few and far between.
  • A Wild Rapper Appears!:
    • Ludacris in "Yeah!".
    • Pitbull in "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love Again".
    • Nicki Minaj in "Lil' Freak" and "She Came to Give It to You".
    • Juicy J in "I Don't Mind".

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