The crowd went crazy...and it was not only because of the hype of having seen the opening acts; Iz from One in a Million 2, Alif Satar and Mizz Nina performing. The audience had spotted two white Alphards being driven in to the stadium. No prizes for guessing who they were 'ushering' in.

It was July 7 and we were at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil. The intermittent rain did not dampen the spirit of thousands who came to have Usher serenade them live in Malaysia at a concert brought to you by Galaxy Group and Sony Music Malaysia. Even the Queen, Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Nur Zahirah was there to grace the event.

Slightly after nine, Usher burst on stage in an all-white ensemble,  amidst a play of stage lights, and proceeded to grab the audiences' attention when he sang his first song of the night 'Caught Up'.

His sexy moves and the way he gyrated oh-so-smoothly to the beat got the crowd bopping their head in unison, arms swaying from side-to-side as he sang hits from when he first broke into the scene.

Hits like 'You make me wanna', U remind me', 'Confessions', 'Bad girl', 'You got it bad', 'Burn', 'Love in this club', 'You don't have to call', 'Yeah', 'I need a girl' and many more were belted out as he sussed out if there were original fans on ground who supported him from way before. After every song, he broke into a wide grin, obviously elated to see true blue fans in Malaysia who knew his lyrics by heart and sang along with him.

After 13 years of being in the music industry, Usher was surely an act to remember. His experience in performing live could be seen as he did not neglect interacting with the crowds. One particular moment was when, in between songs he read a placard of a fan which said "Will you marry me?" Usher in his cheekiness replied, "Awww, that's so sweet. But you know, I tried that once and it didn't work..." and got the audience in stitches.

Usher the epitome of pure sexiness got the crowd screaming every single time he flashed his abs 'accidentally'. His suggestive dance moves in the midst of 'Nice and Slow', had the audiences' going "Oh my gosh! Did you see what he did?"

Why? Well, picture this.

At one stage, he was seated on the floor and as he sang the chorus, he slowly pulled the microphone stand over to him, strategically placing it between his legs. As he got himself up on his knees, he then slowly raised and lowered his lower part of his body in a pseudo push up likened to making love: the stand had suddenly doubled up as an intimate object.

How could that not have had any spectator bug-eyed with mouth agape?

As the concert went on that night, during his solo dances, we could tell that pop legend Michael Jackson had a big influence in his dance repertoire as we watched his feet contemplate some modified moonwalk moves which the former was famous for.

And as he danced with his crew, they were moving together in one fluid, seamless performance, never going out of step in what we think took hours of practice to perfect.

As the night came to a close, he performed  more current hits like 'Daddy's Home', 'Lovers and friends', and 'There goes my baby' before finally ending the night with hit song 'OMG' which aptly described our experience that night. Oh my God, indeed.

Pictures courtesy of Galaxy Group