Saturday 19 February 2011

Two decades after he took the stage, Usher still makes us saying OMG after we leave his shows

If you’re expecting a crowd of predominantly teenage girls to an Usher concert, you’re wrong. If you went to his show at the O2 and thought that his main idea was to emulate Michael Jackson, you might be wrong as well.
Usher started the concert on a flying platform. He looked around and saw a very diverse audience. It was not only screaming teenage girls waiting for him to take his shirt off (which he did). There were the parents of these girls, fathers with their sons and mates who were drinking beer and enjoying the show.
The star filled the stage with his personality. Usher’s voice and moves are his competitive advantage and he exploited that to the maximum last night in front of approximately 20, 000 of his fans.

Let's Take a Ride
In the two-hour experience the Dallas native offered a musical journey - from his debut single You Make Me Wanna, to Love in This Club and the medley of his previous hits.
There was a good selection of songs. The fans seemed more excited about his previous singles than the ones from Raymond V. Raymond, although after the concert the only thing you can hear at the North Greenwich tube station was “oh, oh , oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh…” from OMG.
During the performance of You Reminded Me the four female dancers pretending to be his previous lovers haunt the singer in a dramatization where he’s acting like a player. 

The happiest girl in 02
In Trading Places an attractive blonde girl from the crowd went to the stage. Usher got very intimate and I heard someone from the audience saying, “That b*tch is so lucky.” The performance was a little dirty, but that can be forgiven.
Usher just got divorced, he’s a bachelor again and there’s nothing wrong with a little display of raunch. On the other hand, it helps selling more albums. That’s probably is one of the reasons why he also took off his shirt and had all these suggestive moves.

Choreo
Overall the dance performance was slick with some choreography reminding of Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveShow. The dancers were professional and demonstrated good skills when they used pyro or other light effects for the numbers.  
Usher paid a tribute to his idol Michael Jackson with a dance on the intro of Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough.
There are reviews in the British press that claim the main idea of the artist during the concert was to imitate the King of Pop. I don’t think that was necessarily the case, but I believe that Usher has the capacity to fill the void for an inspiring pop act that appeals to mass audiences.