Dear Gossips,

Is Usher really Usher? This is the story I’ve been LOLing all weekend, coming out of his show at MetLife Stadium. And even though he brought out surprise guests like Mary J Blige, Ashanti, Method Man, 50 Cent, and more, all of that has been drowned out by a conspiracy theory: that during parts of the show, it’s not Usher performing but a lookalike.

And what makes it even funnier, at least to me, is that his team actually shared footage from parts of the show that people were side-eyeing.

As you can see from the comments under that post, half the people there don’t think it’s him. And the other half is like, it’s totally him, he’s just lost some weight. So is that legit Usher, or is it a fake Usher? It’s confusing because there are moments where I’m like… that looks nothing like Usher. And then others where I’m like, oh OK, I know that person.

The noise about it is so loud that he’s had to address it on social media.

It would be a crazy thing to do, to try to con tens of thousands of people in a stadium and send out a dupe. Then on top of that post a video of the dupe to your official channels.

But it’s not like it hasn’t been done before. As MC reminded me this morning, Miley Cyrus did it almost 20 years ago in 2008 on the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds tour when she slipped into a door and had a double come out at the end of a song for a costume change. It was a majorrrr controversy at the time. 

@ashleysonlin

Does anyone remember WHAT A SCANDAL THIS WAS???? Disney used a body double for Miley for this song #hannahmontana #bodydouble #disneychannel #miley

♬ original sound - Gabe Escobar

Later on a spokesperson confirmed the switch for wardrobe purposes.

I don’t think Usher’s alleged lookalike situation will reach the scandal levels of Miley but it will add another level of intrigue to his shows going forward with the fancam forensics. That’s where we are now in the age of deepfakes and A.I.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

Usher (maybe?) in concert during The R&B Tour at MetLife Stadium in NYC on August 7, 2026

Photo credits: Raymond Alston/Shutterstock

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