Usher preps for 'celebration' of Super Bowl halftime show, gets personal with diabetes pledge

Usher almost can't believe his own fate.

The king of R&B over the past two years has had a wildly successful Las Vegas residency, a spinoff of performances in Paris, a fashionable Met Gala appearance, an instantly viral NPR Tiny Desk concert, and coinciding announcements of headlining the Super Bowl halftime show and his upcoming ninth studio album. It's been a trajectory that wasn't planned in totality and could only come together in this way for Usher (after all, it's Ursher baby).

"I don't think I could have crafted a better story," Usher says via Zoom. "I don't think I could have had a better moment, and it honestly wasn't about a new album."

That new album, "Coming Home," debuts the same day he takes the Super Bowl LVIII stage at Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas, which has become a home away from his Atlanta roots and where he recently received the key to the city.

"When I first came to Las Vegas, I had high hopes that this would offer true passion for me," Usher, 45, says. "When you've done this for as many years and for as many albums as I have, you kind of have a tendency to either become complacent, or maybe you lose the energy and the excitement for it. But man, it reinvigorated my hope, my passion for entertainment."

His final date in Vegas on Dec. 2 will also mark his 100th show, a milestone he says is part of an "amazing journey" from the pandemic to now, as he prepares to squeeze nearly 30 years of hits into the 13-minute halftime show.

"My process of prepping has been day-to-day," Usher says. "How do I manage to get through these shows that were already booked before I decided to take on the Super Bowl, which is one of the grandest stages of all to play?"

His nine No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 include "U Got It Bad," "Yeah!" feat Lil Jon and Ludacris, "Confessions Part II" and "OMG" featuring will.i.am., though he's still deciding on a final setlist for the halftime show. The Grammy Award winner is getting in "the practice that I need … with an actual live audience" of his Vegas residency and is "100% invested in making certain that I get that right for these 13 minutes."

"That's like the most incredible playlist I would have ever put together in my life if I get it right," he says with a laugh.

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Fans can expect "a celebration of my life, and a celebration of life, for every experience that I had," including the ones that "allowed me to be transparent about my emotions and feelings."

Usher, making his way through a press day in support of a new pledge with pharmaceutical company Sanofi, has continuously faced the personal head-on in his music – now, he's letting his private journey guide him into urging people to get screened for Type 1 Diabetes with The 1 Pledge movement, which launched Wednesday.

"This has been a personal journey for me more than a passion philanthropically," Usher says. "Not many people know that I have a child who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and before this diagnosis was given, I had a very valuable amount of time to get acclimated and understand what that journey would be for my child." Usher is father to kids Usher "Cinco" V, 15, Naviyd Ely, 14, Sovereign Bo, 3, and Sire Castrello, 2.

Though there's no way to prevent Type 1 diabetes, there are multiple tests to measure blood sugar and detect diabetes early, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which leads to better treatment.

"As a Type 1 diabetic parent, a child having low numbers or high numbers and trying to figure out how to manage that, and then tomorrow, start over, it's like every day the clock starts over."

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