Usher Trivia: 44 amazing facts about the singer!

Usher is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. Born in Dallas, Texas but raised and lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee until moving to Atlanta, Georgia.

Let’s find out some interesting facts about him!

1. Usher Raymond IV was born October 14, 1978.

2. At the age of 12, his mother put him in local singing competitions, before catching the attention of a music A&R from LaFace Records.

3. In August 1994 he released his self-titled debut album, Usher.

4. He rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his sophomore album My Way (1997), which spawned his first U.S. Billboard Hot 100number-one single, “Nice & Slow”, with top-five singles “You Make Me Wanna…” and “My Way” earning him his first two Grammy Awardnominations in 1998 and 1999.

5. Usher’s mother left her job as a medical technician to manage his career, but later broke up their relationship as manager-client in May 2007.

6. Usher’s music is generally R&B, but he also incorporates pop, dance and hip hop into his songs.

7. His third studio album 8701 (2001), produced the number-one singles “U Remind Me” and “U Got It Bad”.

8. The former won him his first Grammy Award in 2002, along with “U Don’t Have to Call” in 2003 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

9. Confessions (2004) established him as one of the best-selling musical artists of the 2000s decade.

10. It sold over 20 million copies worldwide, bolstered by its four consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number one singles -“Yeah!”, “Burn”, “Confessions Part II”, and “My Boo”- and has been certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

11. Confessions earned him threeGrammy Awards in 2005, including Best Contemporary R&B Album. Here I Stand (2008) and Raymond v. Raymond (2010), debuted atop the Billboard 200, produced the Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles “Love in This Club” and “OMG”.

12. The EP, Versus, also produced the Hot 100 top-five single “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love”.

13. Looking 4 Myself (2012), also debuted atop of the Billboard 200 chart and produced the Hot 100 top-ten single “Scream”.

14. Raymond v. Raymond and Looking 4 Myself notably received Grammy Awards for R&B singles “There Goes My Baby” and “Climax”.

15. The RIAA ranks Usher as one of the best-selling artists in American music history, having sold over 23.8 million albums and 38.2 million digital songs in the United States alone.

16. To date, his worldwide sales stand over 43 million albums and 75 million records overall, making him one of the best-selling music artists.

17. Usher has won numerous awards including eighteen Billboard Music Awards and eightGrammy Awards.

18. At the end of 2009, Billboard named him the number-one Hot 100 artist of the 2000s decade, the second most successful artist of the 2000s decade, and ranked Confessions as the top solo album of the 2000s decade.

19. Billboard also placed him at number six on their list of “Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years”.

20. Usher has attained nine Hot 100 number-one singles.

21. He has been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

22. In 2008, he started his ownrecordRaymond-Braun Media Group (RBMG) a joint venture with talent manager Scooter Braun.

23. Aside from recording music, Usher is involved in other businesses, including several restaurants.

24. The most prominent artist Raymond represents is Justin Bieber.

25. In 2001, Usher began dating TLC member Chilli. Their relationship lasted for two years: they broke up in December 2003, followed by a media frenzy surrounding the personal nature of Usher’s fourth album, Confessions.

26. In 2004 it was reported that Usher briefly dated British supermodel Naomi Campbell for a few months, together the pair attended the MVT Europe Awards and it was reported that Naomi jumped out of a pop out cake to surprise him for his birthday.

27. Then the following year he was linked to model, Eishia Brightwell for sometime in 2005. They were seen together at different events including the Grammys, the Vanity Fair Oscar party and the NAACP Awards.

28. In November 2005, Usher began dating stylist Tameka Foster, who had worked as his personal stylist for several years. Their engagement was announced in February 2007.

29. The two were wed on August 3, 2007, in a civil ceremony in Atlanta.

30. Upon their marriage, Usher became a stepfather to Foster’s three sons from previous relationships, one born when she was a teenager and two from her first marriage, to Atlanta clothier Ryan Glover.

31.  Usher and Foster also have two sons together: Usher “Cinco” Raymond V, born in November 2007, and Naviyd Ely Raymond, born in December 2008.

32. Usher’s father died of a heart attack on January 21, 2008.

33. In February 2009, two months after the birth of their second son, Foster suffered a cardiac arrest in São Paulo, Brazil, when she was given general anesthesia prior to scheduled cosmetic surger

34. She was induced into a coma to aid her recovery and was transferred to a larger facility, the Hospital Sírio-Libanês.

35. Usher cancelled his performance at Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy Gala in order to fly to Brazil to be with Foster.

36. After a week of recovery, Foster’s surgeon issued a statement saying that she was “doing very well”.

37. Usher filed for divorce from Foster in June 2009 in Atlanta.

38. Foster’s 11-year-old son Kile Glover, Usher’s former stepson, was declared brain dead on July 8, 2012, after being struck by a personal water craft on Lake Lanier the previous day.

39. Glover died on July 21, 2012, after being removed from life support.

40. Usher quietly married his long time girlfriend and manager Grace Miguel in September 2015 while vacationing in Cuba.

41. Aside from recording music, Usher is involved in other businesses, including several restaurants.

42. In 2005, Usher is one among the artists who signed on for a Hurricane Katrina relief concert.

43. Usher is a vegan. He adopted a vegetarian diet shortly after the death of his father, Usher Raymond III, from a heart attack in January 2008.

44. After several years, Usher dropped all egg and dairy products, embracing an entirely vegan diet for health reasons.