Usher
Usher is an American pop singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer, and actor born in Dallas on October 14, 1978, who performs in the English language across a range of genres including contemporary R&B, hip-hop, soul, dance music, dance-pop, and crunk.
Usher was educated at North Springs High School and released his self-titled debut album in 1994 at the age of fifteen. That early entry into recording established him as a working musician and composer while still in his teens. He followed that debut with the album My Way in 1997, which produced his first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100, the track "Nice & Slow."
Beyond his career as a singer and songwriter, Usher has worked as a film actor, a television actor, a screenwriter, a record producer, and a businessperson. His activities as a composer and record producer extend his professional engagement well beyond performance alone. He has received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album and a Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance, as well as the NRJ Music Award for International Male Artist of the Year. He has also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Usher's recorded output spans contemporary R&B, pop music, hip-hop, soul, and dance-pop, reflecting the broad range of genres in which he has consistently worked as both a performer and a creative contributor.
Quotes by Usher
Marketing is more important than it has ever been. But I'm trying to tear the layers back and make it not so contrived. I think people just want entertainment.
I'm a go-hard type. It's in my DNA. I physically prepare my body as if I'm a trained athlete. After the shows, I sit in an ice tub and do a hot dip, cold dip, and sometimes I sit in a hyperbaric chamber to rejuvenate my energy.
As a kid, looking at Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, New Edition, the Temptations, Motown, people who I felt were huge artists, they made me wanna do something.
I create from a place of passion. It's like a pregnancy, where you create from a place of passion, and then it grows, and then before you know it, you want to push that baby out.
I went through a soul-searching period. I went to a place that was a little bit more reflective and dark. I began to look at who I am, who I was, where I come from, what my culture is, and who I am as an African-American person in America.
Music is not free to make. Studios are going under because people now work at laptops. Quantity over quality is what begins to happen; the idea of what quality is has changed.
