Usher — who played the Super Bowl and has had a great 2024 so far — is the musical guest at Anna Wintour’s Met Ball on Monday.
This is despite TikTok sponsoring the event. Usher’s music was pulled off of TikTok in February by Universal Music because the platform wasn’t paying for licenses.
Universal’s Taylor Swift may also attend.
Meanwhile, the Conde Nast Union is still threatening to strike the event on Monday over layoffs and no contract. Wintour is editorial director of Conde Nast, which includes Vogue.
Usher doesn’t come cheap and he’s not doing this for free. He has a residency in Las Vegas to offset anemic album sales. (He only sold 587,000 copes of his recent album.)
So add his expense to the other the Metropolitan Museum will have to pay so Wintour can stage her annual Halloween show.