Update – Awkward Fan Interaction -Fantasy Pop Star Manager – Usher

I’m starting a new series called “Fantasy Pop Star Manager”. It’s like Fantasy Football but instead of managing a pretend NFL team I’m going to give career advice that no one asked for to established entertainers. Today’ client is Usher Raymond.

Usher Raymond is on tour this summer with Chris Brown. The tour is simply called the R&B Tour; The Raymond and Brown Tour. Usher has had a long and impressive career that started in his teenaged years. He navigated fame and the music industry with guidance from his momager Johnetta Patton. Usher’s mother was his manager for seventeen years.

I think Usher and his mother had a falling out when he married Tameka Foster and she stopped being his manager shortly after that. Usher’s marriage to Tameka was quite a time in pop star history and it was at the height of TRL’s popularity. You had to be there to understand. I think it predates social media as we know it now. Usher fandom was messy as heck at that time. That needs to be a different blog post.

https://people.com/usher-felt-attacked-by-fans-opinion-of-ex-tameka-foster-exclusive-8582989

That stage in Usher’s life inspired the song “Papers”. It’s a song about divorce. I’ve never been married so I don’t personally relate but for some reason “Papers” is one of my favorite songs.

We’ve watched Usher mature, marry have children, divorce, marry again, repeat. Usher is currently married. I’m unsure how many ex wives, children and step children he has. He’s made a lot of music, been on a lot of tours, made a lot of money, won awards and performed at the Superbowl halftime twice. The man is highly accomplished.

Usher released “Confessions” in 2004 and it was a sensation. The song was dramatic and video was sexy. No one else was quite like Usher and offered what he offered listeners.

I saw Usher in concert on his Kansas City stop of the OMG Tour in 2010. It was awesome! It was a great show and the OMG era established Usher as a pop star. Usher is very savvy. He merged into the pop lane without turning his back on his R&B roots and alienating his day one fans. His moves have been brilliant.

I’ve never been to a concert where it was so interesting to observe the audience. I’ve been to several concerts throughout my life and have been in audiences full of excited fans. (I didn’t go see the R&B Tour. They didn’t come to Kansas City and the ticket prices were a bit steep to me.) Usher’s fans have a unique energy and vibe. The audience was mostly women and a handful of men. Some of the men in the audience were as excited to see Usher as the women were. Usher fans act like they just got out of solitary confinement or convent and went straight to the Usher show. It’s like they hadn’t seen a man in months.

I couldn’t imagine being the center of that type and level of attention. The T Mobile Center in Kansas City (then Sprint Center) holds 20,000 seats. 20,000 people were lustfully screaming their heads off for one man. It’s got to put him in a strange head space and possibly cause mental health problems. It almost seems kind of scary for him but he was confident and comfortable on stage. Usher seems like a nice, well adjusted man but keep Usher in your prayers. I’m glad Usher stays married to someone. I’m sure it helps him stay grounded.

Usher is now forty seven years old and is destined to reach legend status. I think he will be similar to Frankie Beverly one day. My unsolicited advice to Usher is to make a feel good song or an entire album for people to play at cook outs and family reunions in the next few years. A song or album for two steppers will keep his music in play for decades into the future. Cook outs and family reunions are never going to stop.

There is a segment of the R&B Tour where Usher simulates sex with a woman that he brings on stage from the audience. During his Las Vegas residency he at cherries out of an audience members mouth. It was gross and I wouldn’t have been surprised if the Clark County Department of Health didn’t fine him. I guess everyone forgot about the herpes scandal. That too needs it’s own blog post.

I think Usher should lay off the Chippendales type antics. His fans don’t need it. Their imaginations are far worse than anything he’s going to do on that stage so it’s kind of a waste of time. I’ve been to see the Chippendales and they don’t even do all that. The Chippendales are actually kind of wholesome. It was actually a little family oriented. Women were in there with their grandmothers.

Usher just needs to keep singing, working out to look good and be the multiple times married and divorced, middle aged dad he is as opposed to being an amateur stripper. His fan base is mostly comprised of middle aged single moms, spinsters, housewives and gay men that don’t actually need the visual.

At least Usher can read the room.

Usher Stops Onstage Encounter After Fan Appears Uncomfortable https://share.google/YXfOx02d4HKgfmaVZ