Usher told concertgoers not to come on stage unless they were comfortable participating in his sensual performance routine, following a viral moment in which a fan appeared uneasy. The warning matters because it addresses questions about consent and expectations when audience members are invited into intimate, improvised stage segments.

The comments were made at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, on 28 July, after an incident at the 25 July Nashville date of Usher and Chris Brown’s ‘The R&B Tour’. During ‘Can U Handle It?’, Gabrielle Cheyenne appeared reluctant as Usher performed around a prop bed, prompting him to end the interaction and ask her to leave the stage. Cheyenne later said she had not known whom she would be joining on stage and rejected criticism that she should have acted more enthusiastically.