Usher

Usher Raymond IV (born October 14, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. He is widely recognized as an influential figure in contemporary R&B and pop music. Raymond first released his self-titled debut album in 1994 at the age of sixteen and rose to fame in the late 1990s following the release of his second album My Way (1997). It spawned his first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single “Nice & Slow”, and saw similar success with its follow-ups “You Make Me Wanna…” and the title track. His third album, 8701 (2001), saw continued success with the 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 as Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2002 and 2003.

Confessions (2004) established Raymond as one of the best-selling musical artists of the 2000s decade, containing four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles—”Yeah!” (featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris), “Burn”, “Confessions Part II”, and “My Boo” (with Alicia Keys)—and the top-ten “Caught Up”. The album sold over 20 million copies worldwide and was certified diamond by the RIAA. After splitting from his manager and mother in 2007, he released the albums Here I Stand (2008) and Raymond v. Raymond (2010), both of which debuted atop of the Billboard 200 chart and spawned the respective number-one singles “Love in This Club” (featuring Young Jeezy) and “OMG” (featuring will.i.am). The latter album won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album, while its single “There Goes My Baby” won Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. An extended play (EP) was released the following year titled Versus (2011), which produced the top-five single “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” (featuring Pitbull). His fourth consecutive number one album, Looking 4 Myself (2012) was supported by the Grammy Award-winning lead single “Climax”. A standalone single, “I Don’t Mind” (featuring Juicy J) reached the top-fifteen in 2014, while his eighth album Hard II Love (2016) peaked at number five on the Billboard 200 chart. In 2018, he released a collaborative album with producer Zaytoven titled A. He is scheduled to release his ninth album, Coming Home in early 2024 as his first independent project, preceded by the single “Good Good” (with 21 Savage and Summer Walker).

Referred to as the “King of R&B” by various media outlets, Raymond has sold 23.8 million albums and 38.2 million digital songs in the United States. Internationally, he has sold 80 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. At the end of 2009, Billboard named him the second most successful artist of the decade, 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” and number 14 on their “Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Artists” list. In 2023, Rolling Stone Magazine named him the 97th greatest singer of all time. In 2024, the same magazine named “Confessions Part II” the greatest R&B song of the 21st century and “U Don’t Have to Call” the 25th.Raymond has earned 9 number-one singles. Considered an pop icon and sex symbol, he has been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame, SoundExchange Hall of Fame, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Raymond has won numerous awards and accolades including eight Grammy Awards, 34 ASCAP Awards, nine Soul Train Music Awards, and eight American Music Awards. With 18 awards, Raymond is the fifth-most awarded artist at the Billboard Music Awards. He 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. Outside of music, Raymond is acclaimed for involvement in humanitarian causes, having founded the charitable non-profit Usher’s New Look in 1999.

From Wikipedia, released under the terms of the CC-BY-SA license.