'I felt like a failure, hopeless, paralyzed, numb,' the singer says in his latest clip. By Jocelyn Vena
Usher in his "Numb" video Photo: RCA Records
These are his confessions. Usher gets personal in his brand-new video for his up-tempo Looking 4 Myself track, "Numb," which premiered Thursday evening.
The clip opens with footage of Usher walking offstage during a gig at the O2 World arena in Berlin back in January. Shortly after that moment plays out, Usher shares, "I felt like a failure, hopeless, paralyzed, numb." From there, the video shows both the glamour of Usher's life, as well as those darker moments.
Usher's personal life has garnered a number of headlines over the last twelve months, including the video's featured concert walk-out. While that one plays out literally, the video takes some of those other headlines (the death of his stepson, Kile Glover, and the heated custody battle with his ex-wife Tameka Foster), and re-imagines them in some fictional ways.
The clip is a fast-paced montage of Usher reading to child, visiting an ill woman in a hospital, dancing alone in a glass box, attending a glitzy dinner party and getting a lap dance (rather unenthusiastically), edited with artsy shots of blurring traffic. As the song closes out, Usher dances and exercises through the pain, and finally manages to break through the glass box.
In the lead-up to the premiere of the video, Usher tweeted out various phrases and lines teasing it. He wrote a rather inspirational take on the video before it debuted, tweeting, "Sometimes we take for granted moments that allow us to make it thru, ability to just wake up every morning&take a breath."
With the video ready for his fans, Usher is now preparing for a stint as a mentor on the next season of "The Voice". He canceled a slate of 2013 European tour dates to focus on the role.
"I'm really excited about it," he told MTV News. "It's the type of show that I feel really sets up an artist and makes it about what matters most first: the voice. Everything else comes afterwards in terms of the mentors; that's what gives the personality, gives the opportunity to be an artist who will excel and transcend culture and also be able to tell an incredible story in music. So I like being able to be at that place. I love being a mentor."
What do you think of Usher's new video? Let us know in the comments!
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