September 8, 2016
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - R&B singer Usher accepted the 2,588th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday, imploring fans during a tongue-in-cheek speech to keep vigil over it and ensure it stays clean.
The star was unveiled in front of a number of musical and film luminaries, including pop and soul icon Stevie Wonder, Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am. and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
"It is because of you guys that I have this moment. It is because of you that this shining star will be here and I leave it up to you -- it's your responsibility -- to come down here every chance you get to shine my star," he joked to fans.
"Hey listen, that's the smallest thing that I could ask of you right now, especially given the fact that I'm going to be walked on."
Usher, 37, has won eight Grammy Awards and sold more than 65 million albums, with nine Hot 100 No. 1 hits and 18 Hot 100 Top 10 singles.
His 2004 record "Confessions" was the best-selling solo album in the first decade of the 21st century in the US and brought him one of his three Grammys in 2005.
Born Usher Raymond IV in Dallas, Texas, he was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and later moved to Atlanta.
His mother entered him in singing competitions when he was 12 and he caught the attention of an executive from LaFace Records.
His hits include "Can U Get Wit It," "U Remind Me," which brought him his first Grammy in 2002 for best male R&B vocal performance, and "U Don't Have To Call," which brought him his second in 2003, in the same category.
Usher's acting career has taken in Broadway, television and a number of feature films, culminating in an acclaimed turn as boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard in the recently released Roberto Duran biopic "Hands of Stone."
