Usher launches the 10 -night residence in London, with mixed results

Usher launched a 10 -night residence at the London O2 Arena with a smooth two -hour show that was impressive and frustrating in an equal measure.

The American pop star played more than 40 songs, including successes like Yeah, Burn, U Remind Me and OMG, with several costume changes and a smooth choreography of butter.

But the show, which comes to the United Kingdom after a race of 62 dates in the United States, felt strangely rough on the edges-including a handful of stumbling on stage and missed musical signals.

The momentum was frequently torpedoed by Waffly, too long video interludes – but Usher’s magnetic presence on stage filled the concert together.

Entitled “Past, present, future”, the tour is presented as an “intimate” look at the 30 -year career of Usher Raymond IV, as well as “an overview of the future”.

It sometimes happens that the star, one of the best -selling artists of the 2000s, benefits from a career rebirth – after a renowned program of the Super Bowl, and the release of his ninth studio album, Coming Home.

With 10 shows with an O2 closed counters, he entered an elite group of artists who played two -digit residences on the site, alongside Queen (10 shows in 2022), Bon Jovi (12 nights in 2010) and Prince (21 nights in 2007).

Basically, in the past, the present and the future illustrates the skills with which the 46 -year -old man has sailed on the evolutionary trends in the music industry.

We see a video clip of him, 14 years old, dancing to his first single, Call me in Mack, then look at that he transforms into a teenage heart, a confessional ballader, an Edm Starter and an older R&B states man.

He arrives under the scene in a fog of dry ice and a cone of laser beams, apparently controlling the lights with bare hands, before dancing in the middle of the arena with the melted fluidity of his idol, Michael Jackson.

Dressed in a sparkling raincoat and a large -edged pharrell hat, he runs through tubes like getting home, Hey Daddy and U Making Me Wanna, supported by a funky 10 -piece group and a dance team that echoes each of his movements.

Choreography is a strong constant point. Usher’s movements are so effortless that they do not seem to be retained, but such ease has a cost: last year, he had to postpone the start of the tour after having injured the neck in practice.

At the O2, this pain seemed to be a distant memory, while it was leaning around the U -shaped scene on roller skates, removing a flawless moonwalk, and even in the congette in an assassin.

He could have groped a hat at some point, but it was one of his dancers who got closer to calamity – to lose his balance during a elaborate chair routine, sending the chair that turns on the stage.

The group also underwent an accident, missing Usher’s signal to extend the intro to the superstar and come in four bars early. Not disastrous, but always unusual for a show at this level.

The tubes have been punctuated by many interludes, told by Celeste, a “computer subject to slides” focused on AI technology to help Mr. Raymond tell his story “, from Wannabe to the world superstar, against the background of infidelity, tabloid infamy, redemption and survival.

The problem was that his songs could not bear the weight of this story. With a few exceptions, Usher sings mainly to covet the women of the club and the carnal pleasures in the room.

The result was a strangely disconnected program, where Usher followed a video in motion on his absent father with a song on his ex, which he sang by riding a motorcycle.

Priapism was a current theme. Women in the public were Nourished with cocktail cherries (“Oh, is that your first time?” Usher assaulted in the camera) and part of the scene was transformed into a strip club, with post dancers, during the bad girl.

This kind of ironic chauke was a career brand of Usher, but he felt dated and superficial in a concert that promised an intimate look at his personality.

Maybe he wanted us to know, basically, he really likes, really sex.

Fortunately, the songs are still holding. A trio of silent storm ballads – culminating, burns and confessions, Part II – had couples serenading, while a trio of women near me had taken the opportunity to dance a security guard who cleaned the ground.

On his credit, Usher sang everything live, with an airy fag which is not decreased after 30 years on tour. While you were in pain, he held a sustained note for more than 10 seconds.

Sometimes he had a hard time causing public attention during slow Jams. The United Kingdom has always preferred it in club mode – and it was its three biggest sellers, Yeah, OMG and DJ made us fall in love who really put the O2.

Strangely, it was one of these empty club hymns, I am the party, which ultimately gave the most meaning.

“I hope my (music) was something to you,” said Usher on 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 link.”

“If I didn’t have you to encourage me, I wouldn’t continue to do that.”

Pop stars say this kind of thing all the time. But while he was standing at the O2, soaked in sweat, remembered the father who abandoned him and immersed himself from the affection of the public, Usher did not seem to play an act.

Encore, he had abandoned any pretension to be a high -level playboy.

Instead, he delimited around the scene, filming the audience with praise on his phone, while howling the chorus without you.

If only this artist had shown himself earlier.