Highlights
- Usher pulled fan Gabrielle Cheyenne on stage in Nashville; she froze during his sexy routine.
- Usher had her escorted off stage as fans booed the awkward moment.
- Cheyenne clapped back online, and Usher seemingly shaded her at his next tour stop.
Usher isn’t just letting a viral snub slide.
The R&B legend appeared to take a subtle swipe at a fan who left him hanging during his and Chris Brown’s joint tour, after footage of their awkward on-stage moment set the internet ablaze.
At the Nashville stop of the tour on July 25, Usher pulled fan Gabrielle Cheyenne up for a steamy bit during “Can U Handle It?” But the moment fell flat fast, with Cheyenne standing stiff and unresponsive as Usher worked his moves.
The eight-time Grammy winner eventually backed away entirely, waving for security to walk her off stage as some audience members booed.
Cheyenne didn’t take the online mockery quietly. She fired back on Facebook, insisting she never would have turned down the spotlight.
“First off NOBODY is declining to go on stage,” she wrote, adding that she “looked good asf” for the “THOUSANDS of people” watching on the big screen.
She also claimed Usher’s team upgraded her and her mother from floor seats to VIP without ever explaining what the bit would involve, crediting her “pretty privileges” for the swap.
Cheyenne’s mom hopped online too, posting a photo of her daughter with Usher’s wife, Jennifer Goicoechea, taken after the show.
Usher, for his part, appeared to move on with a bit of shade of his own. Just one night later at his Birmingham tour stop, he told the crowd that anyone who didn’t want a sexy serenade shouldn’t come up on stage in the first place, a line widely read as a nod to the Nashville fumble.
“Now before we get started, don’t bring your a– up here if you don’t want to be here.”
He then picked a new fan who was, by all accounts, far more game for the bump-and-grind routine.
Usher is no stranger to spicy crowd work. His bodyguard went viral in 2024 for looking visibly unimpressed during the singer’s cherry-eating bit, and Chris Brown got his own viral moment this tour when he gave Kayla Nicole a lap dance during “Take You Down.”
Between the snub, the clapback and the retooled Birmingham bit, it’s safe to say Usher found his mojo again.
