Usher has kicked off a 10-night residency at London’s O2 Arena with a slick, two-hour show that was impressive and frustrating in equal measure. The US pop star played more than 40 songs, including hits like Yeah, Burn, U Remind Me, and OMG, with multiple costume changes and buttery-smooth choreography. But the show, which comes to the UK after a 62-date run in the US, felt oddly rough around the edges, including a handful of on-stage stumbles and missed musical cues. The momentum was frequently torpedoed by waffly, overlong video interludes – but Usher’s magnetic stage presence just about held the concert together.
Usher has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, and his 10-night stint at the O2 has completely sold out. The singer showered the crowd with fake “Usher bucks” as he portrayed the playboy millionaire. The result was a weirdly disconnected show, where Usher followed a moving video about his absent father with a song about his ex, which he sang while straddling a motorbike. Priapism was a running theme. Women in the audience were fed with cocktail cherries (“oh, it’s your first time?” Usher mugged into the camera) and part of the stage was turned into a strip club, complete with pole dancers, during Bad Girl.
Luckily, the songs still hold up. A trio of quiet storm ballads – Climax, Burn, and Confessions Part II – had couples serenading each other, while a trio of women near me took the opportunity to slow dance with a security guard who was mopping the floor. To his credit, Usher sang everything live, with an airy falsetto that’s undiminished after 30 years on tour. During U Got It Bad, he held one sustained note for over 10 seconds.
Strangely, it was one of those empty club anthems, I Am The Party, that ultimately carried the most meaning. “Hopefully my [music] has been something to you,” Usher said over the introduction. “Maybe we fell in love together, maybe we had a good time together, but something brought you here. And I just want you to know, I appreciate the connection.” “If I didn’t have you to cheer me on, I wouldn’t continue to do this.” Pop stars say this sort of thing all the time. But as he stood at the O2, drenched in sweat, remembering the father who abandoned him and soaking up the audience’s affection, Usher didn’t seem to be putting on an act. By the encore, he’d given up all pretence of being a high-rolling playboy. Instead, he bounded around the stage, giddily filming the audience on his phone, as they hollered out the chorus to Without You. If only that performer had shown up earlier.
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