Winner of eight Grammy Awards, author and performer of major R&B hits such as "My Way," "My Boo," "Yeah!" and "You Make Me Wanna," Usher will be in residency at La Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) after playing 50 concerts in Las Vegas. Before returning to Arizona to prepare for his Super Bowl halftime show on February 11, 2024, and the simultaneous release of his new album Coming Home, the artist gave an interview to Le Monde in which he appeared in a much less polished light than his hits would suggest.

Seeing Michael Jackson for the first time cemented that is the one stage that you got to make it to if you're going to consider yourself a legacy artist. And seeing Prince perform was seeing the celebration of a legacy. Prince, when I saw his performance, it let me know two things. One, that people love his music and understand the legacy that he is and, two, it rained purple that night. It was so beautifully prepared. I know that there's a lot of expectation for my show. What I want to do is celebrate my legacy.

I'm a showman, I know how to put on a great show.

Atlanta needed to be put on a pedestal. And I did that by telling an immersive theatrical story. That is Atlanta: It is all of these things, a melting pot, a bit of fashion, a bit of skating, a bit of song and dance, a bit of hip hop. And also, it has the dramatic backdrops. But if you look at the technical side of it, that elevates it as well. So all of those things are what I wanted you to get from looking at my show, not just Atlanta, but the elevation of black culture, the elevation of what it is to have confidence and exude a certain class and pose and celebrate street culture at the same time, all of it wrapped in one.

More the idea of Valentino. I think it's more of a guy who just has a great time with these women until he actually starts to have some drama in his life. I don't look at the strip club culture that way. I look at it based on the brothels and this concept of the Moulin Rouge that came from Paris. And I think about French cancan. And then you think French Quarters, Baton Rouge, all of these places in Louisiana that kind of hold this French idea of sexual freedom, which is part of the reason why I elected to do my Vegas show here in Paris. Historically, if we go back, artists like Quincy Jones and Miles Davis, they had to come to this country to be celebrated because we weren't as celebrated in our country. By the way, everyday we are being fed the idea that we are becoming more integrated as a black man, but that's not the reality of what happens. It's still important for us to embrace all of the things that are of our culture.

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