Usher dazzles crowd at Enterprise, but was it too much crowd and not enough Usher?

Hailed as one of the greatest singers of modern R&B music, the megastar performed during the Super Bowl LVII halftime show in February, bringing decades of hits to American living rooms. His ninth studio album, released that same day, featured standout tracks like “Kissing Strangers” and “Ruin.”

Usher, 46, has been a star since childhood, bursting onto the scene with his debut, self-titled album at 15 in 1994. It was his 1997 album, “My Way,” that catapulted him to the top of the charts with hits like “You Make Me Wanna…” and “Nice & Slow.” That album marked his debut as an adult musical force and positioned him as a sex symbol.

With five studio albums, eight Grammy Awards, nine No. 1 songs, and over 150 million records sold, Usher still knows how to charm and mystify a crowd with his charismatic, sensual demeanor.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of the “My Way” album, Usher used this tour to take his fans back in time. The show was a timeline of his career highlights, merging old home footage of childhood performances with fresh, personal videos.

But concertgoers had to wait an hour before strolling through Usher’s collection of memories. Although the show was scheduled to start at 8 p.m., the lights finally faded at 9:03 p.m., introducing audiences to an AI computer-generated voice that would narrate the concert. The voice invited guests to travel back to the past as broken images of Usher flashed across the screen. Unfortunately, not much else was audible from the super cool AI voiceover. The pre-recorded audio muffled the entire show, removing an important aspect of the narrative.

The concert ran straight through for two hours with no intermission. Usher initially seemed to be performing his hits in chronological order. After performing “BIG,” old footage of child Usher telling people to refer to him as “Big Tyme” played on stage before the AI bot loaded a video memory of him dancing as a kid. The singer then mimicked his child self live on stage, reenacting the dancing as if to show he hasn’t changed a bit.

He disappeared off stage before coming back to swiftly run through some of his older songs like “My Way,” “U Make Me Wanna,” and an even swifter medley of three songs from his debut 1994 album. Although he didn’t spend much time on his 1990s hit records, Usher didn’t neglect the past in any way. It was clear everyone there was having a good time filled with nostalgia from Usher’s musical memories and their own.

But the concertgoers were the vocal stars of the evening. Major moments to flex the vocals that made him a household name felt missed. He directed the crowd to sing the opening run of “Superstar” five times on their own, teasing briefly as if he was going to blow the house down with his voice but never actually doing so.

Throughout the show, he constantly leaned the mic toward the crowd to sing along. It kept the crowd engaged but was overkill.

Near the end, Usher got down and dirty as he walked through the floor seats to the “G-Spot.” As the first chords of “Can U Handle It?,” he made himself a drink before seductively feeding cherries to some of the ladies in the crowd, most of whom willingly gobbled them up except for one woman, who grabbed them and shyly shoved them into her mouth. It was the type of unabashed, hypersexuality Usher is known for.

Usher expertly intertwined songs from his latest album with older records, ensuring new songs like “Margiela” and “I Am the Party” had their chance to shine.

He brought plenty of drama to the stage. The tiled projector doubled as stacked platforms with hidden doors for easy transitions. They even transformed into dramatic, soap opera-like scenes where interpretative dances played out during “Confessions Pt. II” and, in true Atlanta fashion, morphed the “G-Spot” stage into a strip club where Usher Bucks, his custom currency made viral by his Las Vegas residency, rained down on the audience.

He finally flexed his vocals on songs like “Burn,” “There Goes My Baby” and the emotion-inducing “Climax,” where he radiated confidence, commanding the attention of the arena with his strong voice and sensual presence.

Usher closed out the show with the song “Seduction” before lowering into the stage floor.

But it wasn’t over.

Suddenly, a video on the screen showed Usher on a Zoom call with three versions of his younger self. They talked about what they’d done and where they were yet to go, with present-day Usher reflecting on how his father wasn’t in his life but how he ensured he showed up for his kids. The heartfelt moment was real and transparent.

The singer emerged from the darkness when the video ended for an encore, performing “Good Good” in a dazzling leather jacket with the word “Future” emblazoned on the back and a sparkling glove on his left hand, in homage to Michael Jackson. Finally, he performed his hit “Yeah!.”