Chris Brown and Usher’s tour is facing the heat from critics after some very NSFW displays on stage.
The R&B artists have been co-headlining a tour across North America since the end of June and have garnered plenty of controversy for the show’s outrageously explicit content.
Not to mention the external circumstances, with Brown pleading guilty to affray last month following an alleged bottle attack in Mayfair in 2023, which means he could face up to three years in prison.
Their joint show features heavy sexual themes, with an ongoing audience interaction element in which a woman comes up on stage and essentially simulates some type of sexual act with the music artists.
It’s already proved a volatile feature of the show. Just a few weeks ago, the Confessions singer kicked a woman off stage for not being interested in the sexual elements during their Nashville performance.
Now, the spotlight has shifted back to the tour once more as it arrived in Toronto, with fans capturing video of Brown simulating a graphic sex scene with an audience member, including pulling her hair – albeit clothed.
For an extended period of time, the woman is bent over while Brown thrusts into her as the baying crowds cheer and holler.
It’s prompted backlash from many quarters who have slammed displays like this as ‘unnecessary’ and gratuitous.
‘Concerts are supposed to be about the music and performance, not for grown men to turn the stage into their bedroom. This is completely inappropriate and unnecessary,’ vesperamyst said on X.
‘Genuinely scared of anyone who willingly goes to this concert,’ totallynotems_ shared.
‘Chris Brown is living proof of the misogyny and double standards that exist in the music cause why is every clip from his tour just him humping a bunch of fans on stage and everyone just laughs it of,’ zkdculture echoed.
‘Wtf is Chris Brown doing… can we still even call this a tour?’ Hibee asked.
‘Chris Brown, Usher and their fandoms are freaky, creepy and disgusting af. What does that even have to do with music??’ _moxito blasted.
The tour will continue until December and the two are showing no signs of letting up.
That’s not the only direction the duo is facing criticism from.
Lionel Richie, who is currently on his own tour across North America with co-headliners Earth, Wind & Fire, also had some choice words as he called them out live on stage.
On the claim from Usher and Brown that this was a celebratory tour of R&B, Richie said: ‘Usher and Chris Brown….see they try to do something new. The Commodores with Earth, Wind & Fire, we were doing that back 40 years ago.
‘Only difference is between then and now we didn’t go to jail.’
Brown has a scheduled sentencing hearing for the affray charges on October 26, with the judge setting bail conditions that allow him to leave the UK as long as he returns the day before.
He was arrested in 2025 on his return to the UK for a tour and held in custody for almost a week before he was released on a £5million security fee.