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Biography
After a moderately noticed self-titled debut; Raymond stormed the charts with his enormously successful 1997 sophomore album, My Way, which featured the hit singles: "You Make Me Wanna", "Nice and Slow", and the title track. Its follow-up, 8701, included hits such as "U Remind Me", "U Got It Bad", and "U Don't Have to Call". Usher won a Grammy Award for "Best Male R&B Vocal" in the Grammy Awards of 2001 for "U Remind Me" off his 8701 album. His 2004 album Confessions sold 1.1 million copies in the United States in its first week of release, selling the greatest number of records in one week for any R&B artist, and has topped the album charts onboth sides of the Atlantic. The first single from the album "Yeah!" featuring Ludacris and Lil Jon has topped the US Billboard Hot 100, European, Australian, World, US and World R&B charts, World Adult, Norwegian, Swiss, Dutch and the UK charts in 2004, it also reached number 2 in Canada and number 3 in Italy. Confessions shipped 9 million copies making it the best selling CD in the United States for the year 2004. In December, 2005 Raymond revealed to an interviewer for BASE Magazine that he was "deadly afraid of being buried alive". Professional music career: Usher Raymond IV was born in mars to daisy rodriguezIII and johnathan rodriguez of clifton, who is now his manager. The family lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee until 1992 when his mother moved him and his brother to Atlanta, Georgia. He started singing in a church choir and soon his singing talents became obvious. Six-months after moving to Atlanta,L.A. Reid signed him to LaFace Records after seeing him at a Star Search audition. Usher is well known for his attractive abs in music videos and music performances. He is said to do more than 2,000 sit ups a day. Usher (1994): Released in 1994, his self-titled debut record was executive produced by Sean "Puffy" Combs. It made a modest impact on the charts peaking at number 167 on the Billboard 200 Album charts although it did reach number 4 on the Heatseeker charts for prospective stars. There were three singles released in the US from the album:
Usher continued to create a national profile by recording jingles for Coca-Cola and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. My Way (1997): After working with Jermaine Dupri, Usher, on the move, produced his second album My Way after graduating from high school. Usher co-wrote 6 out of the 9 tracks on the album and recruited leading producers Jermaine Dupri, Babyface and P. Diddy to ensure its success. When released in 1997, My Way was the breakthrough album for Usher, reaching number 4 on the Billboard 200, number 1 on the R&B album charts, and number 13 on the Canadian charts, and number 1 on the R&B album charts. The album would eventually go multi-platinum on the back of the hit singles from the album:
Usher also commenced an acting career appearing in TV series The Bold and the Beautiful and Moesha and movies The Faculty and She's All That. Usher released a live album that failed to achieve the success of My Way, only reaching number 73 on the Billboard 200 and number 30 on the R&B/Hip Hop Charts. The live album was widely perceived as a stopgap measure while he recorded his follow-up album, scheduled for release in early 2001. However, this album to be called All About U was extensively leaked on Napster, leading to new material being recorded for release later in the year. 8701 (2001): The 8701 album, named because of his career until that point (1987-2001), and was also released on August 7, 2001 (8/7/01) proved to be another success. The album went on to push more than 4 million copies in the U.S. It reached number 1 in the UK and Canada, number 4 on the Billboard 200 and number 3 on the R&B charts. This album started to build a market for Usher outside his traditional markets in Canada and the US. 8701 contained a number of hit singles including:
He won a Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his work on "U Remind Me" in 2002, and won the same award in 2003 for "U Don't Have To Call". Usher continued in his acting career, appearing in Texas Rangers in 2001 and in the Disney TV movie Geppetto in 2000. Confessions (2004): Usher released the Confessions album on March 23, 2004. Confessions sold 1.1 million records in the first week of release, the most first-week sales by any R&B artist and the highest sales by any artist in three years. It was seen as a sign that record sales were slowly recovering after three straight years of decline in the US. The album topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic as well as topping US R&B charts and Internet albums charts and reaching number 2 in Australia. The LP's success opened the door to many other male R&B singers like Omarion, Eric West and Chris Brown. "Yeah!" features contributions by Ludacris and Lil' Jon and was released as the first single. Confessions has so far spawned the following hits:
Confessions was certified 9x platinum in the US by July 2005 according to Soundscan. It has sold almost 15 million worldwide. Usher is the only artist to have spent over half of a year (28 weeks) atop the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart in one year with "Yeah!" (12 weeks), "Burn" (8 weeks), "Confessions Part II" (2 weeks), and "My Boo" (6 weeks). 2004 has been the most successful year in Usher's career. In 2005, Usher finalized a deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers to purchase partial ownership of the team and set up a residence in Solon, Ohio, one of the more affluent suburbs of Cleveland. In February 2005, Usher won 3 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group ("My Boo" with Alicia Keys), Best Contemporary R&B Album (Confessions), and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration ("Yeah" with Ludacris and Lil Jon) making his total tally of grammy awards to 5. In July 2005, Usher was voted the most powerful artist in the pop industry, the singer beat Alicia Keys, Coldplay and Eminem to claim the top spot in the Los Angeles Times 2005 Pop Power List, reports The Sun. The list was compiled by 21 industry bigwigs including producers Jermaine Dupri, Rick Rubin and rap mogul Russell Simmons. Usher's follow up album is rumored to be called The Book Of Zion and is scheduled for a early 2007 release. This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors, This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Usher Raymond". |
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