Usher Raymond IV is an American R&B singer who was born on October 14, 1978. He was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after being born in Dallas, Texas, before migrating to Atlanta, Georgia. His mother entered him in local singing contests when he was 12 years old, and this is how a music A&R from LaFace Records came to notice him. Usher, his self-titled debut album, was released in 1994. With the release of My Way, his second album, he gained popularity in the late 1990s (1997). It gave rise to his first U.S. The top three singles on the Billboard Hot 100 are “You Make Me Wanna…”, “My Way,” and “Nice & Slow.” The number-one singles “U Remind Me” and “U Got It Bad” as well as the top-three single “U Don’t Have to Call” were off of his third album, 8701 (2001). Eight million copies were sold globally, and in 2002 and 2003, he took home his first two Grammy Awards for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
His fourth consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number-one song, “Yeah!” (with Lil Jon and Ludacris), “Burn”, “Confessions Part II”, and “My Boo” (featuring Alicia Keys), as well as the top-ten “Caught Up,” made him one of the best-selling musical artists of the 2000s decade. The RIAA awarded it a Diamond certification for its global sales of more than 20 million copies. He released the albums Here I Stand (2008) and Raymond v. Raymond (2010) after divorcing his management and mother in 2007. Both albums debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart and, in turn, gave rise to the number-one singles “Love in This Club” (with Young Jeezy) and “OMG” (featuring will.i.am).
In the US, Usher has sold 23.8 million albums and 38.2 million digital tracks. He is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, with 80 million recordings sold internationally. Billboard placed him as the second-most successful artist of the 2000s decade at the end of 2009, the top Hot 100 artist of the decade, and Confessions as the best solo album of the era. He was ranked sixth on Billboard’s list of the Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years in 2010.
