Usher has landed his 52nd chart appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 this week (July 16), as “Good Love” with rap duo City Girls debuts at No. 70.
The Lathun-sampled party anthem marked the 8x Grammy winner’s first entry since October 2019 when his self-influenced track “Come Thru,” headed by Summer Walker, opened and peaked at No. 42. Before that, Usher had a 20-week run in 2017 with Chris Brown’s Heartbreak on a Full Moon cut “Party” with Gucci Mane. It halted at No. 40 in February 2017.
Since Usher’s Hot 100 debut with “Can U Get Wit It” in September 1994, he had nine songs to advance to the number one spot, including “U Got It Bad” and “OMG” featuring will.i.am.
At the time of this publishing, Usher holds the record for the most Hot 100 No.1s in a calendar year by a male R&B soloist, with four total. He accomplished this feat in 2004 with songs from his blockbuster album Confessions. Included in the batch are “Yeah,” featuring Ludacris and Lil Jon, “My Boo,” “Confessions Pt. II,” and “Burn.”
Speaking of Confessions, the Grammy-winning, diamond-certified album re-appeared on the Billboard 200 at No. 198 last week following his debut on NPR’s Tiny Desk for Black Music Month.
The viral performance resulted in a huge jump in streams for “Superstar” and “Confessions Pt. II,” both featured on Confessions. The former track had a 238% increase, while the other had a 48% nudge in streams.
.@citygirls & @Usher's "Good Love" debuts at No. 70 on this week's #Hot100.
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) July 11, 2022
Going back to “Good Love,” so far on Spotify, the Mr. Hanky-produced track has amassed more than 1.9 million streams since its July 1 release. The accompanying video, directed by Daps, arrived on the same day.
In March, Usher updated People’s Mark Gray on his long-awaited ninth album. He revealed, “I’m going to release an album this year, hopefully, but now it’s just a matter of the timing, and what the name of the album and all of that.” The untitled LP will serve as Usher’s follow-up to Hard II Love, released in 2016.
Looking 4 Myself, the sixth proper album by Usher, celebrated its 10th anniversary on June 12. Rated R&B’s Keithan Samuels rallied up commentary from key players such as Rico Love, Luke Steele, Eric Bellinger and more to reminisce on studio sessions and to share their thoughts on how Looking 4 Myself has aged.
On July 15, Usher will relaunch his Las Vegas residency at Dolby Live at Park MGM. The second leg runs until Oct.29.
He’ll perform his signature songs and probably some of his recent hits, including “Don’t Waste My Time” with Ella Mai and “Bad Habits.” He could call on Mary J. Blige to sing their new duet “Need Love,” which is taken from her album Good Morning Gorgeous. Tickets for Usher’s new Las Vegas residency dates are available now.
