Usher has nothing but love for Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.
During his show-stopping 2024 Super Bowl halftime show, Usher brought out Keys to perform “My Boo.” The sultry rendition included the two artists wrapped in each other’s arms, lovingly touching each other throughout their performance, seemingly an ode to the original music video from 2004 that featured the same closeness.
The steamy interactions on football’s biggest stage were flagged on social media, with people wondering how Keys’ husband, Swizz Beatz, felt about their interaction.
In a Feb. 19 interview with “The Breakfast Club,” Usher said there was “no disrespect” to anyone, including Swizz Beatz during the performance.
“In no way, anything that was done there should be viewed as bad,” he said. “It was literally about having fun because of a song that me and Alicia made many years ago and we celebrate it because of the legacy of it and no disrespect to anybody or anything like that.”
Usher said that he, Keys and Swizz Beatz laughed about people’s comments on social media.
“Absolutely, we laughed about it,” he said. “It’s crazy how people think. But it’s all love.”
Following the “My Boo” portion of the halftime show, people on social media shared their thoughts about the intimate choreography.
“Imagine someone hugging your wife like Usher hugged Alicia Keys,” someone wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“I think Alicia Keys should apologize for letting another man touch her like that,” another person said.
The intimacy did not faze Swizz Beatz, who praised his wife’s performance and seemed to address the “negative vibes” in a Feb. 12 post.
“Y’all talking about the wrong damn thing !!! y’all don’t see that amazing dress covering the entire stadium,” he wrote.
The “Fallin'” singer’s all-red outfit started off with a long, blowing cape that detached soon after she opened her part of the halftime show. Keys later took off a second, smaller cape she had on, too.
Besides Keys’ outfit, Swizz Beatz heralded the performance as “nothing but amazing with 2 amazing Giants,” which is a reference to the couple’s new art exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.
“Congrats @usher and my love @aliciakeys that song is a classic,” he added. “We don’t do negative vibes on this side we make history.”
“My Boo” made history when it first debuted in 2004, charting at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for six weeks. That stint contributed to Usher’s success at the top of the chart that year. He spent a total of 28 weeks at No. 1, which made him the first artist to top the chart for more than half a year, Billboard reported in November 2004.
Keys and Swizz Beatz married in 2010 and share two children. Usher applied for a marriage license three days before the Super Bowl with his longtime partner Jenn Goicoechea. They share two children.
Aside from Keys, Usher was also joined onstage by Jermaine Dupri, H.E.R., Will.i.am, Ludacris and Lil Jon.
