Usher fans still clinging to his promise of dropping new music “this year” have been getting reacquainted with some of his classics as a way to get tide themselves over until the release – at least that’s what this week’s Billboard 200 suggests.
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The 43-year-old, currently taking Vegas by storm via a residency at Sin City’s Dolby Live at Park MGM, recently took to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert to give music lovers a peek at what they’ll see at the critically acclaimed show. Cranking out live renditions of fan favorites like ‘My Way,’ ‘You Make Me Wanna,’ and more across the set, it was his stunning renditions of hits found aboard his Diamond-selling 2004 album ‘Confessions’ that really got people talking.
In fact, his performance of the LP’s opening number, ‘Superstar,’ spurred a viral challenge on TikTok – a feat that’s helped push its nearly 20-year-old parent project to #100 on this week’s Billboard 200. Besting the sales of some of today’s top sellers, reports have it ‘Confessions’ – which has already sold over 15 million copies worldwide as of time reported – added even more padding to its handsome sales sum.
“‘Confessions’ saw considerable streaming gains thanks to its Tiny Desk feature and meme ubiquity, rising from 180,000 streams on the Wednesday before the concert (June 29) to 267,000 the Friday immediately after (July 1), a 48% lift, according to Luminate. But Usher’s biggest Tiny Desk bump was reserved for “Superstar,” which exploded from 111,000 streams last Wednesday to 375,000 that Friday, a 238% gain. On the whole over that timespan, total streams for Usher’s catalog rose from 4.1 million to 5.6 million…”
At the height of its popularity the album reigned atop the Billboard 200 for nine non-consecutive weeks.