Usher was videoed booting a fan from the stage on Saturday, in a now-viral clip from his latest concert gig in Nashville. The 47-year-old singer is known to invite fans on stage for a personal performance, but the latest iteration on the R&B tour, which he is co-headlining with Chris Brown, left the concertgoer visibly uncomfortable.
The Viral Moment
A clip of the moment showed a shirtless Usher putting a stop to his serenade, after the woman pulled from the crowd awkwardly smiled while being tipped back on an on-stage bed. A miffed-looking Usher then turned away and told the crowd: 'I don’t think she wants to be on the stage?' As he stepped away from the female fan and the bed she was sitting on, he waved his hand to indicate she should be shooed from the stage.
Commenting on the Instagram post of the moment, which has been viewed 17 million times, fans praised Usher for stopping once he noticed the fan was uncomfortable, while others joked his ego seemed bruised.
Fan's Response
The fan, Gabrielle Cheyenne, later took to social media to hit back at criticism that her behaviour had been 'nasty' and suggested she had been hoping to go on stage for co-headliner Brown, in a now-deleted Facebook post. 'First off NOBODY is declining to go on stage,' she wrote in response to comments that she should not have agreed to go on stage. 'I looked good asf, you think I wasn’t going to let THOUSANDS of people see me?'
Cheyenne claimed that she had been moved from floor seats to the VIP section alongside her mum, due to 'pretty privileges'. 'They don’t say who you’re going up there for!' she wrote. 'Y’all wanted me to go up there and f*** him atp?'
Meanwhile, Cheyenne’s aunt Tia Byrd posted a statement on Facebook in which she claimed her niece had a 'nice conversation' with Usher’s wife Jennifer Goicoechea after leaving the stage. She wrote: 'I don’t care what anyone else would do but at least she had enough respect for her mom and dad, boyfriend, brother, AND CHILD! At the end of the day, she went home to her man and HE went home to HIS WIFE!'
Having posted a series of selfies with the pointed caption, 'Unbothered', Cheyenne continued to defend herself on her Instagram Story on Sunday. She wrote: 'My attitude isn’t “nasty” until I’m provoked!! Y’all aren’t gonna get on the internet calling me out my name and disrespecting me and expect me to keep it cool! Don’t think that y’all are gonna bully me about an experience that y’all didn’t get!'
Tour and Legal Context
Usher is currently on a 33-date stadium tour with Brown, which kicked off last month and is named R&B after their surnames. The tour concludes at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium in December. Brown last week pleaded guilty to affray over an altercation at a London nightclub in 2023, in which a man was hit over the head with a bottle. The 37-year-old singer, whose jury trial is due to take place on October 26, was previously charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Abraham Diaw. He pleaded not guilty to the charge in June last year. Metro contacted Usher’s representatives for comment on this story.
