How old is Usher and what is his net worth?
RENOWNED R&B artist Usher started performing when he was only 12 years old and became a household name in the late 1990s.
The multi-award-winning singer and songwriter has a career that has spanned three decades.
Who is Usher?
Usher, whose full name is Usher Raymond IV is a 43-year-old American R&B singer and actor originally from Dallas, Texas, but raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
He joined his church choir when he was nine years old and was pushed further into music by his mom by the time he was 12 years old.
He recorded his first track for the 1993 movie Poetic Justice and dropped his first album, titled Usher, a year later without any success.
He went back to the drawing board and in 1997 he released his second album My Way which hit the no. 4 spot on Billboard's Top 200.
“During the time between that first record and then the second record, I worked in silence,” Usher’s mother, Jonetta Patton, told Hollywood Life in 2020.
She spoke of his first album and hit song, My Way, saying “I didn’t tell the record label what I was doing. So now Usher said, ‘This time I’m gonna do it my way.’"
She continued, “See, they wanted him to be this bad boy image. Usher’s not a bad boy. That’s that whole image that they wanted. It didn’t work. So Usher said, ‘I’m gonna do it my way.’ And that’s basically what we did.
“So what see on ‘My Way,’ you just see raw talent.”
The album propelled him into the spotlight with three of his songs reaching the Top 10 including his chart-topping single Nice and Slow, and his songs You Make Me Wanna... and My Way reaching the no. 2 spot.
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In 2008 Usher and Patton started working together when he rehired his mom as his manager.
Patton had managed Usher's early career, but the arrangement broke down in 2007 before they started working together again a year later.
A source told PEOPLE at the time, “[Usher] wanted [Patton] to come back on board and she decided to,” adding that the reason was reportedly due to a drop in album sales.
His manager, Benny Medina stepped down, telling the outlet, “With an artist like Usher, the bar is set really high. Whether it was management, marketing, or the music, we achieved a number-one single and a number-one album.
"It is a completely new day and time in music now. In four years, his audience, demographic, and musical direction has changed. Records like Lil Wayne’s ‘Lollipop’ are the type of phenomena that ‘Yeah’ was in 2004. I had a great time and we parted ways amicably.”
He won his first Grammy Award in 2001 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his song U Remind Me. He has since been nominated for 22 Grammys and has won eight Grammy Awards, 18 Billboard Music Awards, and eight American Music Awards, and was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2016.
With 30 years of experience under his belt, it's no surprise that the chart-topping singer has amassed a sizable wealth.
As of 2024, his net worth was estimated at $180 million by Celebrity Net Worth.
What has Usher said about his Super Bowl performance?
Super Bowl LVIII will take place on February 11, 2024, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada and Usher was confirmed as the performer in the 2024 Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII halftime show.
Usher called the opportunity an "honor of a lifetime" in a statement.
"I can’t wait to bring the world a show unlike anything else they’ve seen from me before."
The Super Bowl half-time performer also shared details of the upcoming performance on an appearance of Good Morning America.
He told reporter Kelley Carter that he considered the struggles that past Black artists endured so that he could headline the Super Bowl LVIII half-time show.
Usher thought of Black artists, as "having to at some point, go through kitchens to even be able to perform for an audience."
He also considered his friends, mentors, and fans throughout the last 30 years while planning the performance.
"I didn't start where I am now, and I didn't get there by myself," he said.
"So, everybody that has been a part of it, I'm carrying them with me. All of my fans, my loved ones — the people who may have felt like they have been forgotten, they haven't. I'm carrying you right with me when I walk on that stage that night."
Is Usher married?
Usher welcomed his first child, Usher Raymond V in 2007 with his then-wife Tameka Foster, and they welcomed their second son, Naviyd Ely Raymond, in 2008.
The couple divorced after only a year of marriage, and in 2015, he re-married executive chef and businesswoman, Michelle Grace Harry.
Their marriage lasted until 2018, and he met his current girlfriend, Jenn Goicoechae, who is the Vice President of A&R, Epic Records in 2019.
They have two children together, a 1-year-old daughter, Sovereign Bo Raymond and they welcomed their son, Sire Castrello Raymond in September 2021.
He spoke about his growing family in an interview on Good Morning America in July 2021 and said he "can't wait" for his fourth child to arrive.
"I'm definitely enjoying this little baby boom of ours," he said, adding, "This new addition to the family has just been exciting."