Usher’s Las Vegas residency has drawn a lot of attention over the past several days. Namely, his schtick of pulling women out of the crowd to serenade them on stage has drawn plenty of scrutiny after one of those women, Keke Palmer, was criticized by her boyfriend for her wardrobe choices. This led to days of discourse, and perhaps inevitably, to excited anticipation of the next lucky lady — or potential backlash victim.
The latest is model Winnie Harlow, who attended the show with her boyfriend, NBA player Kyle Kuzma, over the weekend. She reposted a fan-recorded clip in which Usher began to mosey over but gave up on the approach as Harlow scooched over into Kuzma’s lap. She gave the post a jovial caption, which read: Figured out the secret to the Usher concert.. sit in your mans lap Mamas. He said ‘She Chose!!!’ Okayyyy”
The whole mess started last weekend, when a video of Palmer slow-dancing with Usher in a sheer dress went viral. Palmer’s partner (and child’s father), Darius Jackson, groused, “It’s the outfit tho.. you a mom,” on Twitter, leading to such a backlash against him that he deleted his accounts (but not before doubling down on the criticism, whining, “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is.”)
Jackson reactivated his account later, thanking Elon Musk for allegedly helping him clean up his mentions. For her part, Keke seemed unfazed by his reaction, even going so far as to turn his commentary into merch.
Another woman whose Usher moment got some viral scrutiny was Bay Area rapper Saweetie, who appeared to be too stoned to do much more than smize at Usher while he serenaded her. Some fans criticized her perceived lack of enthusiasm, but it seemed pretty clear to others that she was too caught up in the moment to worry about how she was going to look online.