Usher Confesses How He Felt Watching His First-Ever NPR Tiny Desk Concert Reach Viral Success: I Was Blown Away, I Was Shocked

Usher Confesses How He Felt Watching His First-Ever NPR Tiny Desk Concert Reach Viral Success: I Was Blown Away, I Was Shocked

Usher Raymond is confessing how he felt watching the success of his NPR Tiny Desk.

During a recent interview with Twitter Music, Usher Raymond said he was blown away by all the praise and compliments he received  — especially because it all happened naturally.

According to Usher Raymond,

“I was blown away, I was shocked. I think I was in Los Angeles somewhere and they were like, ‘Yo you know you going viral?’ I’m like, ‘It’s good right?”…then I looked on and I saw a few people do it. Then I saw more people doing what I had done and it just kept going and kept going and I was like wow this is amazing. This is something special.”

Had the honor of being @TwitterMusic very first guest of Behind the Meme…. #WatchThis pic.twitter.com/CYSWniJR1u

— Usher Raymond IV (@Usher) August 25, 2022

He added,

“I don’t know where the inspiration sometimes comes from. It could have been anything. It could have been Prince. Somebody had speculated that Prince had done something like this before. I don’t know, but I do know that I felt like that was the right thing to do in that moment that would just kinda like give people a good time. It just happened, I didn’t plan it. It just happened.”

NPR Music concluded their month-long celebration of Black music on Thursday (June 30) with a Tiny Desk Concert from Usher and, as previously reported, the performance sent the internet into a frenzy!

Vedo, 29, and Eric Bellinger, 36, two singers who have created songs for the illustrious R&B artist, joined Usher, 43, and his band for this performance. Together, the group performed six songs from his catalog: “You Make Me Wanna,” “Nice & Slow,” “Superstar,” “Confessions Part II,” “You Don’t Have to Call,” and “My Way.”

His first NPR Tiny Desk, the performance marked one of the “Climax” crooner’s most intimate audiences to date.

The concert itself and the attention that followed is one of the many reasons Usher has been labeled the “King of R&B,” a title he happily accepts. The eight-time Grammy Award winning artist said,

“I mean, you call me that, I’ll definitely carry it. I’m a tilt my crown knowing that I’m standing on the shoulders of all of the icons of our time. It is Michael [Jackson] that I stand on the shoulders of, it is James Brown that I stand on the shoulders of, it is Ronald Isley I stand on the shoulders of, it is Luther Vandross, it is Barry White, it is Teddy Pendergrass.”

And as the king, he is well within his rights to feel like the industry is far from dead. In fact, Usher recently called Diddy “nuts” for making such a statement.

According to Diddy,

“R&B is muthaf*ckin’ dead as of right now. The R&B I made my babies to? R&B gotta be judged to a certain thing—it’s the feeling though, doggy. No, no, no. It’s a feeling. You gotta be able to sing for R&B and then you gotta tell the truth. R&B is not a hustle. This sh*t is about feeling your vulnerability.”

The music industry mogul later clarified that his comments weren’t meant to disrespect anybody, but that he was simply pointing out that R&B is in need of some love, vulnerability and support. Usher‘s response to his initial comments was:

“You know when I hear people say stuff like, you know, ‘what happened to R&B’ or ‘R&B is dead,’ it’s not, you just don’t understand the basis of it.”

The “Confessions” singer added:

“R&B is timeless. It ain’t gonna go away. It’s not gonna have a beat. So when I do hear people, even like Puff saying, you know, ‘R&B is dead,’ he sounds nuts to me, it sounds crazy, you know? Especially knowing that he was a pioneer in understanding, a beneficiary of it. You know? The source that is R&B created the breath of life, that was breathing to hip-hop. It wouldn’t be, there would be no hip-hop if there were no R&B.”

Usher‘s second album “My Way” catapulted him to success in 1997.The musician received his first two Grammy Awards for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2002 and 2003 for his third album, “8701.” His fourth album, “Confessions,” made him one of the best-selling musicians of the 2000s.

What are your thoughts on what Usher shared regarding his Tiny Desk Concert? Let us know in the comments!

[VIA]