Last night I was invited to the last night of Usher’s OMG tour at the O2 Arena in London.
I’ve always been a fan of Usher since he first came onto the scene with his debut album ‘Usher’, but have never seen him perform live.
He did not disappoint with his performance. With elaborate staging and impressive dance routines, he had me standing in my seat for around 70% of the performance.
The other 30% had me sat in my seat while he serenaded his female fans (I didn’t mind, I’m not a playa hata)
When it came to his famous ‘get someone from the crowd and sing to them’ part, we were all surprised that he grabbed singer Alesha Dixon.
He sat her on a couch and began to perform ‘trading places’ (another great track). Check it out here:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS4uVLg1ODA]
Part of me could tell this was staged and Alesha was ready to be called up, but the other part of me just went with it and enjoyed it.
Towards the end, Usher took the time to pay tribute to Michael Jackson, which I found brilliant. He gave a speech about how his music has influenced him and danced a few routines of MJ’s, which sent the room mental.
This wasnt the one but a similar one he did in New York
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-8Gai6IO00&feature=related]
What I loved about the tribute was that he didn’t try to sing like MJ (which can be quite karaoke) he just danced, and you could see that he loved recreating the moves.
He even put on a special pair of diamond encrusted air force ones for the performance.
Overall, it was great to see live and he did not disappoint. As a friend of mine Koray put it, he is one of the best performers of our generation, and I agree.
I left with the feeling that in years to come, I will be glad that I saw him live
Usher, who is known to be a cigar enthusiast, also incorporated cigars into the show with the backing dances puffing away during one of the routines – well done Usher!