[PHOTOS] Usher Wins Night Three of Essence Festival 2015

By the time Usher hit the Essence Festival 2015 stage on Saturday night in the Mercedes Benz Super Dome, New Orleans, the crowd needed him to have a major show to make the night end smoothly. While Common and Erykah Badu had decent sets, it was a day of technical difficulties and shortened sets for other artists like Wale in one of the Super Lounges and Missy Elliott on the main stage.

Missy unceremoniously had her mic shut off and the lights turned off on her in the middle of her performance and with Usher to follow, he had to make things right for the fans in the Dome.

For many attendees, Usher didn’t do it and honestly midway through his set, many were headed for the doors, opting to end the night before street traffic got the best of them. Usher decided to go for a slow build on his two-hour set, doing cuts from recent albums that weren’t singles or big records. And when he would do a classic Usher record, his band would tweak the arrangement. While Usher still sounded amazing, the songs we loved sounded like they were being remade by an impostor. At one point, “Nice and Slow” and his rendition of “Climax” made some audience members cringe.

[PHOTOS] Usher Wins Night Three of Essence Festival 2015

Fans who stayed until the end, however, would get the Usher they have come to adore. Usher would right the ship with songs like, “U Remind Me,” “Confessions,” “Number One,” “Bad Girl” and many more. He would bring Wale out to perform “The Matrimony” and that would be one the biggest highlights of the night. When he performed “Yeah,” it was clear that he had won the night for sure.

Usher also made quite the fashion statement with his outfit. Performing on July 4th, he wore a shirt with the words ~~July 4th,~~ only with the word Juneteenth under it, replacing it. The back of his jacket read: “Have We Truly Achieved Our Independence.”

See full images from the show here: