21st Anniversary of Usher’s ‘8701’ album

Today marks 21 years since Usher released his third studio album, ‘8701’.

The era was launched with ‘Pop Ya Collar’ as the lead single, which peaked at #2 in the UK, and the album was originally set to be titled ‘All About U’, however the project was scrapped due to online leaks and changed to become what we now know as ‘8701’.

The album in the US had a slightly different track listing to the rest of the world without ‘Pop Ya Collar’, ‘T.T.P’ and ‘Separated’, but with an exclusive song ‘U R The One’.

In all its variations, the album sold over 8 million copies worldwide and produced two #1 hits on Billboard’s Hot 100: ‘U Remind Me’ and ‘U Got It Bad’.

Other singles from the album included ‘U Don’t Have To Call’, ‘U-Turn’ and ‘Can U Help Me’.

Usher became the third male artist after Stevie Wonder and Luther Vandross to win the ‘Best Male R&B Vocal Performance’ Grammy Award two years in a row for ‘U Remind Me’ and ‘U Don’t Have To Call’.

‘8701’ was also acknowledged with a Soul Train Award for ‘Best Male R&B/Soul Album’.

Usher embarked on the ‘8701 Evolution Tour’ in support of the album, which was his first headlining tour. It was later released as a DVD, ‘Usher Live Evolution 8701’, as well as being aired on the ABC Family Channel.