Thanks to the rise in social media and the ubiquity of texting, the shorthand OMG ("Oh My God") was everywhere in 2010, including in this pumping anthem to hot-looking ladies. It features Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas, who wrote and produced the song. Usher probably wouldn't write a lyrics like this, but the man who gave us "
My Humps" sure would:
Honey got a booty like pow, pow, pow
Honey got some boobies like wow, oh wow"OMG" was the big hit from Usher's sixth album,
Raymond Vs Raymond. It was his fourth #1 hit in the UK (his first since "
Burn" in 2004) and his ninth #1 in America. Usher's run of US chart-toppers started on Valentine's Day 1998 with "
Nice & Slow" and continued until March 2010 with "OMG." No one else had more #1 hits in this span - Mariah Carey and Rihanna had the second-most with six each.
When "OMG" hit #1 in America, it made Usher the first artist with #1 hits in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. The only other artist to do it was Britney Spears. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, only Madonna and Janet Jackson accomplished the feat.
Usher and Will.I.Am shot the Anthony Mandler-directed video on the weekend of March 6, 2010. Usher told MTV News about his original concept for the clip. "We wanted to bring Will.I.Am into my world. Obviously, the international sound and look and feel has already been set, but we wanted to do something theatrical, fun and energetic to show us working off of each other and playing off of each other as artists, but the cinematography would be artistic and incredible."
Mandler's inspiration was Max Headroom, an animated science-fiction character from '80s British TV. "The original idea was kind of Max Headroom," said the director. "That's where it came from — the TV flickering on and there's this character. We just wanted to bring it up to date."
He added that the key to the clip was simply letting Usher's talent takeover. "The concept was to create a world where we put Usher in a space where he does what I think he does better than anyone else in the world, which is perform at a level and magnitude of a superstar and take us, the viewer, whether audible or visually, on a journey, not a ride. And, in that, I wanted to create an unpredictability, so one set leads to another and another, and you never know what's gonna happen. Along the way, Usher becomes our guide. We're so focused on him, we don't notice the change. The thing is unfolding little by little, and you can't quite see far enough ahead to know what's gonna come next."
Will.i.am broke down his hit-making strategy for MTV's The Seven. "We call it 'A-B-ing.' Anything you make, there's nothing new under the sun. So there's always an 'A and B' to whatever your approach is," he said of producing smash hits for the likes of Usher. "So if you want a song to be a big #1 smash, then you have to play a Michael Jackson song while you're making your song."
The tune topped MTV's Best Songs of 2010 list. Runner up was Kanye West's "
Runaway," and in third place came another West track, "
Power."
Usher was accused of borrowing the song's hook from a tune used in the 2003 The Simpsons episode, titled "Dude, Where's My Ranch?"
On "OMG," the R&B star sings, "Honey got a booty like pow, pow, pow/ Honey got some boobies like wow, oh wow." Meanwhile on the long-running animated show Homer Simpson belts out his own home made carol, singing:
Christmas in December, wow, wow, wow
Give me tons of presents, now, now, now
It was a DJs at Jackson, Mississippi radio station Y101.7 who unearthed the connection and they created a video comparing the two lyrics, leading to leading to online fans speculating whether Usher based his chart hit on The Simpsons song.
Usher performed "OMG" on roller skates during his halftime performance at the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Not since Gene Kelly have we seen someone
dance so gracefully on skates, and he did it while looking like a roller derby superhero. He was joined by will.i.am on the song, who along with H.E.R., Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon, Ludacris and Alica Keys, was one of his surprise guests.
