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Usher review – glitzy Vegas-style spectacle is completely preposterous and preposterously entertaining

From rollerskating around the stage wearing a union jack suit to feeding cocktail cherries to women in the audience, Usher wears middle age incredibly well

More than 30 years into his career, Usher has sold out a staggering 10 nights at the O2: the crowd seems to be equally split between people old enough to remember his late 90s rise to fame and those you suspect may have first encountered his music through their parents playing it. As he skips between old-fashioned slow jams and the kind of EDM-influenced pop-R&B that temporarily held sway around 2010, you’re struck by the sense that his longevity might be down to his ability to neatly assimilate whatever’s currently vogueish into his own sound. This is an evening in which Usher deploys his impassioned falsetto while rollerskating around the stage wearing a union jack suit; in which he underlines his loverman credentials by feeding ladies in the audience cocktail cherries; in which a pair of high-waisted trousers that appear to be made entirely out of studded belts teamed with a bare chest and a selection of chains and medallions Isaac Hayes might have considered a little de trop constitutes one of his more understated outfits.

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