Ne-Yo Declares Winner Of Mario And Omarion’s ‘Verzuz’ And Breaks Down Why

Ne-Yo may not have Luther Vandross-level range, but the man is a triple threat and knows a thing or two about how to command a stage and control a mic. So, when he spoke with the men of The Cruz Show ahead of the 2022 BET Awards, he had to discuss the most recent Verzuz between Omarion and Mario.

Though he was able to see its humor firsthand, he also expressed his disappointment.

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“I was there. I was in the house,” he began, making it clear that despite this, he was not planning on making any surprise appearances. “The first part of the show [referring to the pre-show between Ray J, Bobby V, Pleasure P, and Sammie], man, I just feel like that was an opportunity for it to be a real moment for R&B and cats kinda got in they feelings a little bit and turned in into something other than R&B. It was weird.”

As far as the main event goes, the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter spoke on the difference between a performer and a sanger and identified who was which. “A performer versus a singer—I’m sorry, a performer versus a sanger—the performer’s always going to struggle, especially if you don’t sang your damn self, you know what I mean?”

He clarified, “I love O to death, [but] O is a performer. I don’t wanna get on stage after that man. However, Mario is a sanger. Omarion got to use his whole body to get the same response that Mario can get with just his voice. That’s the difference.”

Without getting specific, Ne-Yo did say there was a clear winner and you can guess who he thinks it was. See the full interview and his response at the 5:22 mark in the video below.

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