Usher has revealed his surprise connection with Beyoncé that dates back to when she was a budding pre-teen star as part of a group called The Dolls.
The R&B legend recently joined Capital Breakfast With Roman Kemp in the U.K., where he explained that a studio session had put him in the same room as Bey, and he was tasked with essentially being the group’s babysitter.
“Fun fact, I knew Beyoncé when she was 12 years old, 11 years old,” he said. “She used to be in a group by the name of The Dolls. I don’t know if I could consider myself their babysitter, but I had a time where I had to watch The Dolls.
“I was at Daryl Simmons’ house. He was working with them at the time, and I just happened to be over there and they were working on a session. I kind of found my way into being their like, I don’t know, chaperone, nanny, or something like that — the oldest person in the room.”
It’s crazy to think about how much talent was in the room as Beyoncé and Usher went on to dominate the recording industry. Roughly three decades later, the pair of music titans have a combined 40 Grammy Awards and several multi-platinum plaques.
They even teamed up in 2008 on “Love In This Club II” — a sequel to his Jeezy-assisted hit — alongside Lil Wayne.
Queen Bey is still making history as her Renaissance World Tour recently became the highest-grossing trek of all time by a Black musician.
Her international roadshow has reportedly generated $296 million from 33 shows, with 23 still left on the schedule.
Additionally, she broke the all-time records for the highest-grossing concert by a female, as well as Black act, for her July 29 and 30 performances at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Each night pulled in $16.541 million for a total of $33 million.
Having secured the title of the highest-grossing Black artist ever, Beyoncé has generated a staggering $1.3 billion from the sale of 11.2 million tickets over her career.
Her Renaissance Tour is set to take over Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium for three shows starting on Friday (August 11).
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