Usher Dj Got Us Fallin 39; In Love Album

[Badomero Schoulund]

Afterclosing out a two-and-a-half-year residency in Vegas, most people would take a long, well-deserved break. But Usher is just getting started. The singer wrapped up his Sin City gig in December and is gearing up to release his ninth album (his first in eight years) on Feb. 11, the same day he headlines the Super Bowl Halftime Show for the first time.

When it comes to pop prophesying, our track record is pretty good. Our musings about Rihanna's 2023 Halftime Show setlist correctly clocked 11 of the 14 songs the pop princess performed. But she surprised us by squeezing a whopping 24 of her hits into just 13 minutes, reminding us of just how many chart-toppers she has in her arsenal.

Usher harbors a stockpile of hits himself, and he'll probably want to remind his audience at Allegiant Stadium audience and the millions watching at home of his almost 30 years of pop prowess. We sorted through his discography to craft a setlist that combines his early work, fan favorites, and club bangers.

All Usher has to do is sing the opening words of "OMG" and watch the crowd go wild. The 2010 track was a staple of middle school dances and radio DJ sets alike, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The original features will.i.am, but we think Usher should hold off on bringing out a guest this early and instead move on to another No. 1 hit, 2008's "Love in This Club."

The banger "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love" deserves a spot in the set and so does Pitbull, who features on this track. It'd be Mr. Worldwide's first-ever Super Bowl Halftime show appearance, one that's long overdue for the Miami-born hitmaker.

Another club hit, "More" (the RedOne Jimmy Joker Remix, specifically) would be a smart addition to the set. It's bursting with energy and sure to induce dancing, hand-clapping, or toe-tapping from even the most the most curmudgeonly viewer.

Time for Usher to throw it back to his early years. If Pitbull doesn't beat her to it, Alicia Keys can join Usher onstage as the first celeb cameo of the night to perform 2004's "My Boo." Is a "Confessions Part II" duet in the cards? We'd love to see it.

We can't think of a more epic Super Bowl Halftime Show moment than one that reunites Usher and Justin Bieber. We may not see them recreate the dance moves from the Somebody To Love Remix music video (released 13 years ago!), but this cross-generational collab would go a long way in satisfying millennial and Gen Z viewers alike.

Elizabeth is a digital culture reporter covering the internet's influence on self-expression, fashion, and fandom. Her work explores how technology shapes our identities, communities, and emotions. Before joining Mashable, Elizabeth spent six years in tech. Her reporting can be found in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, TIME, and Teen Vogue. Follow her on Instagram here.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Now to the Super Bowl, where a beloved singer will be taking center stage on Sunday.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEAH!")USHER: Peace up. A-Town down.SHAPIRO: Usher, the chart-topping singer/songwriter, will be this year's halftime performer. It's his first time on stage at the Super Bowl since a guest appearance in 2011. So how will he squeeze 30 years of music into just 13 minutes? NPR music editor Sheldon Pearce is here to talk about it. Hey there.SHELDON PEARCE, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.SHAPIRO: What's Usher been up to these days?PEARCE: Well, you know, Usher's stock is way up right now. It's sort of interesting. In the late 2010s, he was kind of just hanging around. He had a 2018 collaboration he released with the rap producer Zaytoven that felt pretty low-stakes and didn't quite land...(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAY AT HOME")USHER: (Rapping) Till you been driving me crazy, till you been driving me crazy, who you been texting daily? Who you been texting daily?PEARCE: ...And in 2019, he returned to his swiveling chair on "The Voice."But post-pandemic, he has seen a bit of a resurgence. He had a viral moment right here at the Tiny Desk in 2022.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR VIDEO)USHER: Watch this.(LAUGHTER)USHER: (Singing) Just when I thought I said all I can say, my chick on the side say she got one on the way. These are my confessions...PEARCE: And he's been doing this residency in Las Vegas that has been really, really successful, and he had another stint in Paris. He just dropped an album ahead of this Super Bowl performance, and it almost feels like it exists primarily to bolster that performance.SHAPIRO: What's the response to the new album been so far?PEARCE: I think it's been pretty positive.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOP")USHER: (Singing) Don't let this turn into a bop. Mi amor, ti adore - can't get you off my mind. I think about you all the time. Some days I lay in the dark and stay in the blind.PEARCE: It's kind of what you would expect from Usher - this supreme display of professionalism and polish. It explores a lot of the familiar Usher modes, but with great skill - sort of running the gamut as a R&B masterclass. And since much of modern R&B is about vibes and atmosphere, it can be refreshing to hear a seasoned artist be so, like, craft-focused. At the center is the club-adjacent pop R&B he has trafficked in throughout the late stages of his career and with songs like "Keep On Dancing," which feels both sort of retro and modern at the same time.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KEEP ON DANCIN'")USHER: (Singing) When the music goes off and the DJ's going home, get back out on that floor and keep on dancing. Got to keep on dancing. Even if the music stops...PEARCE: Lyrics that speak directly to Usher's ethos of staying out on the dance floor as a metaphor for persevering through a turbulent romance - it all feels deeply connected to everything he's done up to this point.SHAPIRO: Every Super Bowl performance is a little bit different, contains some surprises. Any guesses of what we should expect from Usher's?PEARCE: Well, you know, I wouldn't be surprised to see Usher at least sort of test the waters for some of this new music, especially with a world tour coming up later this year. But I think his set will lean heavily on sort of the classics of his early discography. I wouldn't expect anything crazily groundbreaking - probably more in the realm of dramatic displays of virtuosity. He has a history of sort of connecting with the music of past entertainers. He's performed with James Brown, with Michael Jackson. At the 2020 Grammys, he did a tribute performance in the role of Prince.(SOUNDBITE OF 62ND GRAMMY AWARDS BROADCAST)USHER: (Singing) Don't have to be beautiful to turn me on.PEARCE: So I do expect whatever he does to connect his legacy work with that of Black pop music in general.SHAPIRO: Well, give us your predictions. What do you think is going to happen on Sunday?PEARCE: Well, you know, I can't imagine a world in which he doesn't do "Yeah!" So maybe he brings out Lil Jon and Ludacris with him.SHAPIRO: (Laughter).(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEAH!")USHER: (Rapping) Yeah.LIL JON: (Rapping) Hey, hey, Luda (ph).USHER: (Rapping) Yeah.LUDACRIS: (Rapping) Watch out, my outfit's ridiculous. In the club looking so conspicuous...PEARCE: And maybe there's an Alicia Keys duet in the works.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY BOO")ALICIA KEYS: (Singing) I was there...ALICIA KEYS AND USHER: (Singing) And you were my baby.USHER: (Singing) It started when we were younger - you were mine.PEARCE: But I really do think it'll play strongly off the Las Vegas residency, which - those sets leaned into him being sort of this grown and sexy performer - you know, super fit, abs out, gyrating, some level of theatricality, maybe pyrotechnics, backup dancers and the like. But he has also said that he wants to connect with and honor artists in this performance, and the Vegas residency did see him bringing out R&B performers across eras - Keith Sweat, Teddy Riley, Robin Thicke, Faith Evans and Ashanti, even - so perhaps there is something in store that puts his music in conversation with the broader R&B legacy. I think, in either case, he plans to put the typical glitz and pageantry of Vegas on full display.SHAPIRO: NPR's Sheldon Pearce, thanks a lot.PEARCE: Thank you.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DJ GOT US FALLIN' IN LOVE")USHER: (Singing) Cause baby, tonight, the DJ got us falling in love again - in love again. Yeah, baby, tonight, the DJ got us falling in love again - in love again. So dance, dance, like it's the last, last night of your life, life, gon' (ph) get you right.

Usher aims to continue his recent string of chart success with the release of a new single, 'DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love,' which will appear on 'Versus,' an eight-song companion piece to his 2010 album 'Raymond V. Raymond." That album has already spawned several hit singles, including 'OMG' and 'There Goes My Baby.'

Featuring Cuban rapper Pitbull

WE BACK= (coll.) We're back, we've returned.

In colloquial English the verb "to be" is sometimes dropped.

GET THAT BODIES ROCKING= Start moving your bodies, start dancing. ROCK means to move from side to side.

"That bodies"?!*+/?... yea, it's totally wrong, it should be "those bodies". The first famous rap song was called "Rappers Delight", and I think most rappers delight in breaking grammar rules just for fun sometimes. You can watch this video, which is a parody of how rappers break grammar: Bad Grammar.

THERE'S JUST RIGHT NOW= Only the present moment exists, the past and the future are not real, so live intensely and fully (often used simply to say that you should have a lot of fun, which is almost the opposite idea to the original philosophy).

GON' SET THE ROOF ON FIRE= We're going to have a wild time.

If you set something on fire, you burn it (or at least you start the fire).

If you are talking about having lots of fun inside a building, we say "we're gonna set the roof on fire (or this place on fire)". If you are talking about having a great time going to different places, we say "we're gonna burn/rock this city".

This song has no deep meaning, it's simply a cry of joy because, after a long week working and getting bored, now here comes the weekend and he goes to the disco ready to have fun and have a wild night. There he picks up a girl and falls in love while dancing (so he feels thankful to the DJ).

And then, as a different song, is the message of the rapper, which is something similar (let's have a great time) but more wicked. It's a bad crooked man trying to pick up with a hot girl (but he's not thinking of love here, if you know what I mean).

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