Following a few weeks of teasing, NPR Music today (June 30) premiered its latest episode of their critically acclaimed “Tiny Desk” series, featuring Usher’s performance. As well as a top-of-the-line backing band, Vedo and Eric Bellinger provided background vocals for the R&B legend. The clip lasted approximately 25 minutes and featured Usher’s renditions of classic tracks such as ,” “Confessions Part II,” “Superstar,” “U Don’t Have To Call,” “You Make Me Wanna…,” “Nice & Slowand “My Way.”
His appearance on “Tiny Desk” follows his co-headlining responsibilities at this year’s Something In The Water festival, making him one of the festival’s biggest highlights. As Usher left the stage, he honored Pharrell Williams, who joined the party and helped create the festival.
Usher has not released a new album in six years; Hard II Love is a 15-track collection that features contributions from Priyanka Chopra, Young Thug, Future, and Rubén Blades. A total of 38,000 album equivalent units were sold in the first week to make the album Usher’s eighth top ten album on the Billboard 200. In his opinion, he is already working on the sequel to 2004’s Confessions, which he has been teasing since 2019. A part of Usher’s rousing performance for Cricket Wireless included the release of “Confessions Part III” , a song that, as his collaborator Jermaine Dupri explained on Twitter, turns the material of its predecessor on its head:
A female’s perspective is presented in “CONFESSIONS PART 3”. This song tells the story of a girl who cheats on him and gets pregnant with another man’s baby. This leaves her with the choice of keeping it or aborting it. Having learned this, should he stay or should he leave?”
