By JANINE RUBENSTEIN
It’s four days before Usher will hit the biggest stage in the world—and of his career—but sitting down in his trailer in Las Vegas just after a rehearsal for the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show, the R&B superstar, 45, is calm and contemplative. “This right here is a significant moment in my life,” he says, speaking to People over Zoom. “After 30 years of a career, to be recognized in this way, after sometimes not getting the accolades and recognition that I worked hard for, it’s like I’m back where I started when I was just a kid who had a belief and talent that I didn’t realize would carry me the way that it has. It hasn’t let me down.”
The eight-time Grammy winner’s silky-smooth tenor and acrobatic dancing skills are gifts that have kept on giving as he’s navigated a tumultuous life in the spotlight. This week’s shining moment caps the star’s remarkable career renaissance, kicked off by the success of his top-selling Las Vegas residency that began in 2021. “I don’t know that I could have curated a better moment three years ago when I decided that Las Vegas would be a place that I would come to spend this much time,” he says, noting the serendipity he feels headlining the Super Bowl in the same city where he became the hottest ticket in town, with celebrities flocking to his sexy serenades.
But delivering hits like “Caught Up” and “Yeah!” in front of 65,000 cheering fans wasn’t even the only highlight of his triumphant day. After his performance Usher slipped away with a small group of family and friends to a Vegas wedding chapel to privately tie the knot with his love Jennifer “Jenn” Goicoechea, a music executive and the mother of his daughter Sovereign, 3, and son Sire, 2. His mom, Jonetta Patton, was the couple’s witness. “When you find someone who’s a great partner, it’s an honor and pleasure to share life with them,” Usher says. Her support helped him through a low point in his career, he notes, and with a new album, Coming Home, now out, “I feel like this is the beginning of an amazing next chapter of my life.”
‘I GOT TO ENTERTAIN THE WORLD AND DO WHAT I LOVE. I’M HONORED’
STARRY SUPER BOWL GUESTS1. Alicia Keys lit up the stage as Usher’s first guest, performing her hit “If I Ain’t Got You” before cuddling up with pal Usher to deliver their 2004 slow jam “My Boo.” (For more on Keys, see page 64.) 2. Usher and surprise guest H.E.R. (on electric guitar) rocked out to his 2001 ballad “U Got It Bad.” 3. Atlanta superstars reunited as Usher closed out his 13-minute performance with Ludacris and Lil Jon performing their 2004 smash hit “Yeah!”
(PREVIOUS SPREAD) MALIKE SIDIBE/REDUX; (THIS SPREAD) CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: KEVIN MAZUR/ROC NATION/GETTY IMAGES; ANTHONY BEHAR/ SIPA USA; EZRA SHAW/GETTY IMAGES; KEVIN MAZUR/ROC NATION/GETTY IMAGES; DONNA TROPE; DENISE TRUSCELLO/ CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT/ GETTY IMAGES; (USHER & HIS MOTHER) RAYMOND BOYD/GETTY IMAGES; (USHER & JUSTIN) KEVIN MAZUR/WIREIMAGE
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It’s been a journey filled with chart-topping highs and heartbreaking lows—and more than his share of romantic drama. Raised in Chattanooga, Usher Raymond IV didn’t want to make a name for himself as much as he wanted to make something of the name he’d been given. “I lived with this name that was given to me by my father but no definition with it,” he says of his namesake Usher Raymond III, who split from his mom early on and was largely out of his life. “The majority of my childhood I was seeking to be seen by him and be seen in a way that did not compare me to him,” he says. “When I found music, it gave me the outlet to create a definition.”
Inspired by the merging worlds of R&B and hip-hop showcased by artists like Bobby Brown, New Edition and the Boys, Usher hustled to crack into the music business when he was a preteen. In his early days, “I’d be sitting outside of nightclubs where people would come out at maybe 4 o’clock in the morning, and here I am singing [Boyz II Men’s hit] ‘End of the Road,’ ” he remembers. Though he performed on Star Search at age 13 and is a contemporary of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, “I wasn’t a Disney kid,” he says, chuckling at the mature nature of his songs. “They probably would have kicked me off the lot.”
Eventually he moved to Atlanta and released his debut LP at 15 and his first hit album, My Way, at 18. His seductive persona wasn’t just a marketing creation: “I was always charming the older ladies,” he says. So it was when he met TLC’s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, who was seven years his senior, in 2001. “If I am to be honest, I was her No. 1 fan, and she was my superstar,” he says, nodding to the lyrics of “Superstar” on Confessions, his blockbuster 2004 album that was on heavy rotation amid their highly publicized relationship. “At the age of 8, I put her poster on my wall and said, ‘One day I’m going to meet her.’ ”
But the fan-beloved relationship didn’t work out, and he and Chilli, now 53, split in late 2004. “I was a young man, and she had very specific rules that didn’t work for me,” he says. Even so, “I wanted to marry her. I proposed and she told me no. I went through a great deal of pain after that, not trusting women or wanting to open up.” He admits, “I hurt her too,” but the situation “broke my heart.”
RAISING TEENS AND TOTSAs a dad to teens Usher V and Naviyd and toddlers Sovereign and Sire, Usher is experiencing the best and the busiest of both worlds. “There’s enough distance between the boys and the babies to know that they are protective of one another,” he says of their bond. No matter how close or far apart in age, “you can’t handle your kids the same way,” he says. “You have to make sure that they all have their time, and you help them convey their emotions.”
“Bigs & littles,” he posted for Father’s Day last year with (clockwise from top left) Sovereign, Sire, Usher V and Naviyd.
With Sovereign and Sire in March 2023.
When Usher found love again, marrying stylist Tameka Foster in 2007 and welcoming sons Usher V, now 16, and Naviyd, 15, fans weren’t as supportive. “I felt attacked, like my female fans were judgmental of the woman that I chose. It was the first time I had any kind of negativity coming at me,” he says. The pair went through a difficult divorce in 2009 and an unthinkable tragedy when Foster’s 11-year-old son Kile, from her previous marriage, died in a boating accident in 2012. “It hurt,” Usher says of the loss. “[Tameka] was in Italy at the time, and I chartered a private plane to get her home because she was so distraught. We were not even together. It’s a real hard thing to lose a child. There’s not a day that his brothers and his mother don’t think about him.”
As for his current co-parenting relationship with Foster, 53, “I’m not going to lie, we have more difficult days than we have great ones,” Usher says.
‘I FEEL LIKE MAGIC HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN MY LIFE’
In 2013 Usher V, then 5, nearly drowned in the singer’s pool. “That was one of the hardest days of my life,” he says, “and I’m certain one of the hardest days of hers.” He and Foster were already in the middle of a custody battle, and the scary incident exacerbated tensions before a judge found that there was no negligence on his part. Says Usher: “I love my boys, and I would never do anything to compromise or endanger them.” These days, “we are raising our sons together,” he says. “It’s a process. We’re doing our best.”
The drama came amid a downturn in his career during which he questioned whether to stay in the music business. “I think I grew frustrated,” he says of albums like 2012’s Looking 4 Myself and 2016’s Hard II Love not hitting big with fans. “It was a moment of true consideration,” he says. “Is it time to hang it up? Is it time for me to stop?” For a time he did stop, and embarked on a soul-searching trip in 2018 after his three-year marriage to music executive Grace Miguel, 53, ended in divorce. “Thailand, India, Tokyo, London, I went on this journey. It was all about fun,” he says. “And after I went all of those places, I got it. I was able to purge my thoughts and get to a place where I can really relax and allow light to unfold.”
When he got back, “I found an amazing partner who happened to be my best friend and was there all the time,” he says of finding romance with Goicoechea, whom he’d known for years. “Jenn was the first person I saw when I returned. She was like, ‘You look different.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, where you been?’ ” Amid the pandemic the two welcomed their little ones in short order. Asked if teens or tots are harder to raise, Usher jokes, “My three-nager. She’s so loving, but I don’t know why I named her Sovereign. She’s a dictator. It’s like, be careful what you ask for.” He laughs, adding, “If I’m asking for anything, it’s that my children grow to love each other and protect one another.” Having just taken his own vow to love and protect, Usher says he’s grateful to have found deep contentment at this stage in his life. “I’ve gone through everything that I’ve gone through for a reason,” he says. “I don’t feel too old, I don’t feel too young. I’m in a moment of happiness. I’m right where I need to be.”
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