Usher visits WSB-TV, sits down with Karyn Greer days after iconic Super Bowl halftime performance

Karyn Greer,Mikaela Thomas
·2 min read

Atlanta’s own Usher walked the halls of the WSB-TV studios on Wednesday just minutes after accepting the city’s highest honor, the Phoenix Award.

Just three days outside of the biggest performance of Usher’s life, Channel 2′s Karyn Greer sat down with him for a one-on-one interview about his Super Bowl halftime performance and his legacy.

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“Not many people knew that the Avila brothers and Lil’ John musical directed the entire show. So it was Atlanta all the way through and through. It wasn’t just what I did on stage,” Usher told Channel 2 Action News. “It was the music, the curation the timing. I wanted people to feel like I’m getting a glimpse of the melting pot that Atlanta is when I look at this stadium version of Usher at the Super Bowl.”

When asked about Usher’s New Look Foundation and the work he does with area youth, he said the motivation came from Judge Hatchett and his mother.

“I think the passion that my mother has for young people, it was something that inspired me to try to create a new look on life, and I named it New Look as a result of it,” he said. “I always felt that people are the product of their environment or product of their experiences.”

During his halftime performance on Sunday, Usher said a special message to his mom. He said it was from a song his mother sang to him.

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“The song was ‘You Don’t Have to Call,’ but I said ‘if you choose to call, call on him because he does answer prayers. You see they say I wouldn’t make it, they say I wouldn’t be here,’ and this is a hymn that my church people in Atlanta know,” he continued. “They said I’ll ‘never amount to anything,’ but I’m on my way. And I’m growing more and more each day. That was a song that my mother sang in church. So when I said to her ‘Mama we made it!’ It was a moment back to her really lighting that spark to me back when I was a kid.”

Usher told me he and his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Goicoechea got married by an Elvis impersonator in Vegas, with the whole family in tow, the next plan is a honeymoon of sorts with just the two of them.

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