Time of our lives: Usher and Ne-Yo are coming to Abu Dhabi for F1 club gigs

Both singers are responsible for more than a dozen hit tracks spanning two decades

VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA - APRIL 27: Usher performs onstage at SOMETHING IN THE WATER - Day 2 on April 27, 2019 in Virginia Beach City. (Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for Something in the Water)
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Two generations of modern R&B stars will take over Mad on Yas Island this weekend.

The Abu Dhabi super-club has announced that Usher will perform the race day show on Sunday December 1, while Ne-Yo will take to the stage on Saturday, November 30.

If you take in both shows together, you will be able to trace a clear line between both artists.

Usher, born Usher Raymond, stormed on to the stage as a 17 year old when he released his self-titled debut album in 1994. Co-produced by Sean 'P Diddy' Combs, the album was an instant success, spawning the hits Can U Get Wit It, Think of You and The Many Ways.

His 1997 follow-up, My Way, established him as the latest R&B star. With his silky vocals at home over smooth and sultry productions and rugged hip-hop beats, Usher scored chart-topping hits with U Make Me Wanna and Nice and Slow.

Usher's fame reached its peak in 2004 with his fourth album Confessions, which sold a staggering 20 million copies. Despite the emotionally tumultuous material, the album did manage to squeeze out the club banger Yeah!, which remains a hip-hop nightclub standard.

While he has yet to match that success, Usher has been diligently working away and releasing albums, taking in the pop trends of the moment. 2010's Raymond v Raymond found him dabbling with EDM while last year's A found him tackling the trap music rhythms provided by fellow Atlanta producer Zaytoven.

Usher comes to the capital as he prepares to release next year's much-anticipated Confessions 2.

In a previous interview with The National, Usher said that while he enjoys being in the studio, it is live on stage where he is in his element.

“R&B in general has obviously evolved for the good while other things took away from the authentic experience. I think the live experience has slowly been taking away from R&B,” he said.

“The genre has developed with instruments at hand and the crooner or performer is the most important part for me because that speaks to the authenticity of what it means to be an R&B artist. I try my best to keep the live experience of the entertainment at the forefront and I think that development is equally important as the studio.”

The songwriter: Ne-Yo

While he is only one year younger than Usher, the US singer – real name Shaffer Smith – released his debut album In My Own Words nearly a decade after Usher's first record. While his brand of R&B is undoubtedly inspired by Usher and his peers, Ne-Yo went on to fashion his own sound that's agile enough to straddle various other strands of pop music, ranging from EDM to funk.

A lot of this is down to Ne-Yo being a brilliant songwriter in his own right. In addition to his solo hits such as So Sick and Closer, Ne-Yo has co-written plenty of number-one songs for others, including 2006's Irreplaceable for Beyonce and Rihanna's Take a Bow in 2008.

While proud of his abilities, Ne-Yo said that being a songwriter is not the key to success as pop singer. "At one point, I was very judgmental of people who didn't write their own music and I was questioning the authenticity of it and everything," he told The National in 2016. "I realised I had to stop being like that. Michael Jackson didn't write all of his songs and that didn't take away from how amazing he was. Who wrote the song and the passion that the song is delivered in, they go hand in hand. If that wasn't the case, then every song that Janet Jackson ever did was null and void."

Mad on Yas Island Abu Dhabi Race Weekend features Ne-Yo on Saturday, November 30 and Usher on Sunday, December 1. Doors open at 10pm. To reserve call 055 834 6262. More information is available on www.madyasisland.com