Usher

Usher Raymond IV is a famous American singer, songwriter, and dancer who has had a significant impact on the contemporary R&B and pop music scene.

He released his self-titled debut album in 1994 at the young age of 16, and rose to fame in the late 1990s following the release of his second album, My Way, which produced his first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single “Nice & Slow”, and the top-two singles “You Make Me Wanna…” and the title track.

His third album, 8701 (2001), was also a success, containing two number-one singles, “U Remind Me” and “U Got It Bad”, as well as the top-three single “U Don’t Have to Call”. It sold eight million copies worldwide and won his first two Grammy Awards for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance consecutively in 2002 and 2003.

In 2004, Usher released Confessions, which established him as one of the best-selling musical artists of the 2000s decade. The album was supported by four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, including “Yeah!” (featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris), “Burn”, “Confessions Part II”, and “My Boo” (with Alicia Keys), as well as the top-ten “Caught Up”. The album sold over 20 million copies worldwide and received diamond certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

After parting ways with his manager and mother in 2007, he released the albums Here I Stand (2008) and Raymond v. Raymond (2010), both of which debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart and produced the respective number-one singles “Love in This Club” (featuring Young Jeezy) and “OMG” (featuring will.i.am). The latter also produced the single “There Goes My Baby”, which won his third Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

Usher’s debut extended play, Versus (2010), produced the top-five single “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” (featuring Pitbull). His seventh album, Looking 4 Myself (2012), also debuted atop the chart and saw further electronic production. It spawned the top-ten single “Scream” and the top-20 single “Climax”—which received a Grammy Award. His 2014 standalone single, “I Don’t Mind” (featuring Juicy J) reached the top-15 of the Billboard Hot 100, and his eighth album, Hard II Love (2016), peaked at number five on the Billboard 200.

In 2024, Usher released his ninth album, Coming Home, as his first independent project, preceded by the single “Good Good” (with 21 Savage and Summer Walker).

Usher has sold 33 million albums and 87.5 million digital songs in the United States alone. Overall, he has sold 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Billboard named him the second most successful artist of the decade at the end of 2009, the number-one Hot 100 artist of the decade, and ranked Confessions as the top solo album of the decade. The same magazine placed him at number 6 on their list of “Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years”. In 2023, Rolling Stone magazine named him the 97th greatest singer of all time.

Usher has won numerous awards and accolades including 8 Grammy Awards, 12 Soul Train Music Awards, 8 American Music Awards, and 3 Guinness World Records. With 18 awards, Usher is the fifth-most awarded artist at the Billboard Music Awards. Usher co-founded the record label Raymond-Braun Media Group (RBMG) in a joint venture with talent manager Scooter Braun, which was the first label to sign Canadian singer Justin Bieber in 2008.

Besides his musical achievements, Usher is also known for his involvement in humanitarian causes. He founded the charitable non-profit Usher’s New Look in 1999.