Music Correspondent
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.
Titled “Past, Present, Future”, the tour is billed as an “intimate” look at Usher Raymond IV’s 30-year career, as well as “a glimpse into the future”.
It comes as the star, one of the best-selling artists of the 2000s, is enjoying a career rebirth – following an acclaimed Super Bowl half-time show, and the release of his ninth studio album, Coming Home.
With 10 sold-out shows at the O2, he enters an elite group of artists who’ve played double-digit residencies at the venue, alongside Queen (10 shows in 2022), Bon Jovi (12 nights in 2010) and Prince (21 nights in 2007).
At its core, Past, Present, Future illustrates the skill with which the 46-year-old has navigated the evolving trends of the music industry.
We see a video clip of him, aged 14, dancing to his debut single, Call Me A Mack, then watch as he transforms into a teenage heartthrob, a confessional balladeer, an EDM party-starter, and an elder statesman of R&B.
He arrives from under the stage in a fog of dry ice and a cone of laser beams, apparently controlling the lights with his bare hands, before dancing to the middle of the arena with the molten fluidity of his idol, Michael Jackson.
Clad in a sparkly raincoat and wide-brimmed Pharrell hat, he races through hits like Coming Home, Hey Daddy and U Make Me Wanna, backed by a funky 10-piece band and a dance team that echoes his every move.
The choreography is a constant highlight. Usher’s moves are so effortless that they look unrehearsed, but such ease comes at a cost: Last year, he had to postpone the start of the tour after injuring his neck in practice.
At the O2, that pain seemed a distant memory, as he careened around the U-shaped stage on roller skates, pulling off a flawless moonwalk, and even freeze-framing in a handstand.
He might have fumbled a hat at one point, but it was one of his dancers who came closest to calamity – losing his balance during an elaborate chair routine, sending the chair spinning across the stage.
The band also suffered a mishap, missing Usher’s cue to extend the intro to Superstar, and coming in four bars early. Not disastrous, but still unusual for a show on this level.
The hits were punctuated by numerous interludes, narrated by Celeste, a glitch-prone “computer driven by AI technology to help Mr Raymond tell his story”, from teen wannabe to global superstar, against a backdrop of infidelity, tabloid infamy, redemption and survival.
The problem was his songs couldn’t support the weight of that story. With a few exceptions, Usher mostly sings about lusting after women in the club, and carnal pleasures in the bedroom.
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 sung 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.
That sort of tongue-in-cheek raunch has been a hallmark of Usher’s career, but it felt dated and shallow in a concert that promised an intimate look into his personality.
Perhaps he just wanted us to know that, deep down, he really, really likes sex.
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 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.
At times, he struggled to hold the audience’s attention during the slow jams. The UK has always preferred him in club mode – and it was his three biggest-sellers, Yeah, OMG and DJ Got Us Falling In Love that really set the O2 alight.
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.
