"OMG" is a song by American recording artist Usher. The song features will.i.am, who also wrote and produced the song. It uses the auto-tune effect in several lines, as well as Jock Jams-esque sports arena chanting. It was released on March 22, 2010 as the first worldwide single off his sixth studio album, Raymond v. Raymond, and the fourth single overall, following the three US singles "Papers", "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)", and "Lil Freak". The song was met with mixed reception from critics, who criticized the use of auto-tune, but commended the song's dance and club vibe.

"OMG" topped the charts in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The song became his ninth number-one hit in the United States, making him the first 2010s artist to collect number-one singles in three consecutive decades. He became only the fourth artist of all-time to achieve that feat. Usher also became the third artist to have at least one number-one song from five consecutive studio albums. The song's choreography and dance-heavy accompanying music video has been compared by critics to that of "Yeah!". Usher performed the song live several times including on the ninth season of American Idol with will.i.am. He also performed the song as a part of a medley during his critically acclaimed performance at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. "OMG", was named the fifth best selling song of 2010, selling 3.8 million units.^[1] The song sold 6.9 million copies worldwide during 2010^[2]

The song has been used in 2010 for an episode of CSI: Miami called "Sudden Death".

Background and composition[link]

	"OMG" noicon A 28-second sample of "OMG", featuring the chorus by Usher, supported by the "oh-oh, oh-oh" hook.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

"OMG was written and produced by The Black Eyed Peas frontman, will.i.am. The tune was recorded at Chung King Studios, New York City. Dylan "3-D" Dresdow mixed the record at Paper V.U. Studios, North Hollywood.^[3]. The sample of a crowd shouting "owowowo" in the song was record by will.i.am from the public of the french tv program Taratata.^[4] "OMG" is a midtempo pop song, drawing from the subgenres of dance-pop and synthpop, and is also influenced by R&B.^[5] The song also infuses hints of Eurodance.^[6] Several lines feature the auto-tune effect, and makes use of "hypnotic" hand claps, and Jock Jams-esque arena chanting.^[7] The song is set in common time, and has a tempo of 130 beats per minute.^[5] It is written in the key of E minor, and Usher's vocals span from the low note of G₃ to high note of E₅.^[5] It follows the chord progression Em–D–Bm₇–C₆.^[5] According to James Reed of the Boston Globe, Usher is featured in a staccato delivery over the song's minimalist dance beat."^[8] Will.I.Am begins the song with the line, "Oh my gosh" then Usher starts singing the chorus. He performs his verse and the second chorus, before will.i.am gives his verse. "OMG" concludes with an extended final chorus.^[5] Mikael Wood of The Los Angeles Times said that the lyrics of the song detail Usher's encounter with a woman in a club.^[6]

Controversy[link]

In 2010, WYOY disc jockeys compared part of Usher's verse to a song sung by Homer Simpson in "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", a 2003 episode of television comedy The Simpsons.^[9] The cadences of the line, "Honey got a booty like pow, pow, pow. Honey got some boobies like wow, oh wow" were compared to those of Simpson's tune, "Christmas in December, wow wow wow. Give me tons of presents, now now now."^[10][11] Simon Vozick-Levinson of Entertainment Weekly disagreed, calling the likenesses "a random coincidence".^[12]

Critical reception[link]

The song has garnered mixed reception, with most critics disapproving of the auto-tuned vocals, and the production and appearance by will.i.am. Edna Gundersen of USA Today said that Usher seemed "disengaged" on the song, and allowed will.i.am. to "bludgeon" the song with auto-tune.^[13] Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said the song was one of the tracks where production fell short on Raymond v. Raymond, calling the song another auto-tuned "formulaic chant" by will.i.am.^[14] The New York Daily News said that the song is "as annoying as the tech-speak it mimics."^[15] Andrew Winistorfer of Prefix Magazine preferred "Lil Freak" to be the album's big single, stating that the song "doesn't come close to matching the filthy heights of "Little Freak," [sic] but the sports arena chanting thing hasn't been done this well since the '90s when Jock Jams were enormous."^[16] Winistorfer also said that Usher brought back his "bad taste" in collaborators since Lil Jon on "Yeah!", saying that having the latter on this song would be an improvement.^[17]

James Reed of the Boston Globe said that Usher "fares better" on the collaboration.^[8] Mikael Wood of The Los Angeles Times commended the song's "thumping" groove.^[6] Gail Mitchell of Billboard said that Usher "pumps up the beat on the infectious club anthem."^[18] Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian, called the track "irresistable".^[19] Monica Herrera of Billboard magazine said the song, like "Yeah!," appealed to a broader audience and attuned to clubs. Herrera also said that "the lyrics are hypnotic hand claps and soccer-game chants that fade in and out to keep the party going".^[7]

Chart performance[link]

The song debuted at number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100 selling 130,000 units in its first week.^[20] The song became the third-highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 of his career, behind 1997's "Nice & Slow" at number nine, and 1998's "My Way" at eight.^[21] For the week ending May 15, 2010, the song lifted to number one on the chart, becoming Usher's ninth number-one single. The song collected airplay and digital gainer honors, moving fourteen to seven on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and two to one on the Hot Digital Songs chart.^[22] The song later topped both charts.^[23] As of March 2011, the song has sold over 4,000,000 digital copies.^[24] With the song, Usher tied with the Bee Gees, Elton John, and Paul McCartney for ninth among artists all time with the most Hot 100 hits.^[25] Usher also became the third artist, behind McCartney and Michael Jackson to collect at least one number-one single from five consecutive albums.^[25] The song made Usher the first artist in the 2010s to have a number-one single in three consecutive decades, Usher's being the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.^[22] He became only the fifth artist of all time to accomplish this, the others being Stevie Wonder in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s; Michael Jackson in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; and Madonna and Janet Jackson in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.^[22] "OMG" was the second shortest title to lead the chart, tying Jackson's "Ben", "Bad", and "ABC" with the Jackson 5, with Britney Spears' "3" being the chart-topper with the shortest title.^[25]

The song charted at number three on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, two on the Pop Songs chart, and three on the Hot Dance Club Play chart.^[23] It also topped the Rhythmic Top 40, making Usher the first artist to collect ten number ones on the chart, above 50 Cent, Beyoncé, Nelly, T-Pain, and Mariah Carey, each with seven.^[26] Usher led first on the chart with "You Make Me Wanna" for thirteen weeks from 1997–1998 and "Love in This Club" featuring Young Jeezy in 2008.^[26]

"OMG" reached number two in Canada, and was certified Platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association.^[27][28] It was later upgraded to 2x Platinum for shipments over 160,000 copies.^[28] It sold 223,000 copies during 2010 in Canada.^[29] Internationally, "OMG" charted across Europe, reaching number one in the Ireland, and United Kingdom where it became the third best selling song of 2010.^{[30] [31]}It also charted moderately in other countries, allowing it to reach a peak of six on the European Hot 100.^[32] In Australia and New Zealand the song placed at the top of the charts.^[33][34] It was certified 2x Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association,^[34] and Platinum in New Zealand by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand for shipments of 15,000 units.^[35] It was later upgraded to 5x Platinum in Australia for shipments over 350,000 copies.^[35]

Music video[link]

Background[link]

Usher and will.i.am shot the video the weekend of March 6, 2010.^[36] The video was directed by Anthony Mandler.^[36] In an interview with Rap-Up, Mandler said about the concept of the video: "...The video is a spectacle. It really emphasizes what we love about Usher and the character and the icon that he is, and most importantly, it’s really a video that showcases his superstardom".^[37] The video was released on March 30, 2010, on VEVO and AMTV.^[38] According to Mandler, the original idea for the video was citing Max Headroom a fictional artificial intelligence character from 1980s British television and film.^[39] The reference is made when Usher is seen on a flickering television at the beginning of the video.^[39] Mandler specified, commeintng, "Max Headroom was always in his room," he continued, "this unidentifiable room, '80s shapes. I used that for inspiration."^[39] Usher stated that he wanted to do something theatrical and fun, and that while will.i.am. brought the international sound, he wanted to bring the producer into his world, "working off of each other and playing off of each other as artists, but the cinematography would be artistic and incredible."^[39] Mandler described the visuals in the clip as "Hitchcock-ian," as well as simply captuiring Usher in his element, as he said he wanted the R&B singer's talent to take over.^[39] He further explained, stating,

"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."^[39]

Synopsis and reception[link]

The video begins with Usher flickering on a television in a room, before we see him in a scene dancing with blue flashing lights, and will.i.am. is shown in a similar room with red flashing lights. Usher is then shown with female background dancers in a white room. In the scene he dons a pair of glasses which show the dancers performing through the lens. Usher then dances outside in front of a concrete wall, with male background dancers appearing as shadows. As will.i.am. performs his verse, he and Usher are seen in their corresponding rooms with flashing lights. After this, Usher puffs a cigar and dances with male background dancers in an arena-like area, whilst he is also joined by female dancers with flashing lights on the floor, with the video ending with Usher shown on the flashing television.^[40]

In a review of the video, Brad Wete of Entertainment Weekly said, "For a song with such a title, it sure does take a minute for its video to build up to wow-worthy moments. After some clean dance sequences, the magic begins. Usher grooves with shadows, puffs out O’s with cigar smoke, and then links back up with his ladies on a primary colored dance floor to show off his steps."^[41] Chris Ryan of MTV News compared the video's flashing lights to the music video for "Yeah!", and called the song an answer track to Trey Songz's "LOL".^[42] At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, the clip was nominated for Best Dance Video, Best Choreography, and Best Male Video.^[43]

Live performances[link]

Usher performed the song with will.i.am. on the ninth season of American Idol, appearing in a black bowler and matching black suit with silver lapels, accompanied by flames and other pyrotechnics.^[44] They then performed the song together on The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 10, 2010.^[45] The song has also been performed live in Australia on Hey Hey it's Saturday on May 19, 2010, as well as on Sunrise on May 21, 2010.^[46] Usher later performed the song on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, So You Think You Can Dance, Good Morning America and live in the United Kingdom on Britain's Got Talent.^[47][48] On August 6, 2010, he performed the song alongside other hits at his New Look Foundation’s inaugural World Leadership Awards in Atlanta, where his protege Justin Bieber and R&B singer Ciara also performed.^[49] Another event the song was performed at was the Activision E3 Event.^[50] The song was performed alongside "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" during the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.^[51] VMA executive producer Dave Sirulnick told MTV News, "We said to him, 'We want to do the best televised dance routine that you've done in years. Let's show why you're the king.'"^[51] MTV Buzzworthy writer, Tamar Antai was present at the rehearsal for the show, and commented that the VMA crew was about to "pull off visual feats not just previously unseen and unparalleled at the VMAs, but unseen and unparalleled on TV."^[52]

The performance was received with critical acclaim. On Usher specifically Antai said the performance was like "liquid magic," saying, "He took it to the level that comes after the next level. The penthouse level."^[52] He was aided by about a dozen background dancers, the males in skeleton-like costumets, and the females donning a one-piece, gloves and boots.^[53] The "OMG" performance was accompanied by red laser lights, making an illusion as if the stage disappeared.^[43] The lights spelled out "O.M.G" as well as "Usher", as dancers lowered from the ceiling.^[43] Jayson Rodrgiguez of MTV News commented, "The singer moved and grooved, proving that he's the R&B star that everyone pays attention to for the big moments."^[51] Rochell D. Thomas, also of the site said "Call it what you will: talent, swag, skills...When he steps on the dance floor, some mysterious thing comes out of him and puts the G in groove."^[43] Thomas went on to say that Usher's dance moves would make "the late great Michael Jackson jealous" in the stage production "that included more special-effects bells and whistles than a summer blockbuster."^[43] Chris Ryan of MTV Buzzworthy also compared the performance to Jackson, calling it overall, "One part "Tron," one part laser show, one part Michael Jackson choreo tribute, and all spectacle."^[53]

Usher appeared with The Black Eyed Peas to perform the song during the band's performance during the halftime show of Super Bowl XLV.

Track listing[link]

Personnel[link]

• Lyrics, music, production, instruments, recording and engineering – will.i.am
• Mixing – Dylan "3-D" Dresdow

Source:^[3]

Charts and certifications[link]

Chart procession and succession[link]

Release history[link]

See also[link]

• List of number-one singles in Australia in 2010
• List of number-one singles of 2010 (Ireland)
• List of number-one singles in 2010 (New Zealand)
• List of number-one singles from the 2010s (UK)
• List of number-one R&B hits of 2010 (UK)
• List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 2010 (U.S.)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Hot 100 Recap: Ushering in a New Decade of No. 1s by Billboard
• OMG: Usher Hits No. 1 by Billboard

v t e Usher singles Usher "Can U Get wit It" "Think of You" "The Many Ways" My Way "You Make Me Wanna..." "Nice & Slow" "My Way" "Bedtime" 8701 "Pop Ya Collar" "U Remind Me" "U Got It Bad" "U Don't Have to Call" "U-Turn" Confessions "Yeah!" "Burn" "Confessions Part II" "My Boo" "Caught Up" Here I Stand "Love in This Club" "Love in This Club Part II" "Moving Mountains" "What's Your Name" "Trading Places" Raymond v. Raymond "Papers" "Hey Daddy (Daddy's Home)" "Lil Freak" "OMG" "There Goes My Baby" "More" Versus "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" "Hot Tottie" "Lay You Down" Looking 4 Myself "Climax" "Scream" Soundtrack "Call Me a Mack" Featured singles "The Party Continues" "I Need a Girl (Part One)" "Lovers and Friends" "Same Girl" "Better on the Other Side" "We Are the World 25 for Haiti" "Somebody to Love" "Fed Up" "Dirty Dancer" "Promise" "Without You" Other songs "Here I Stand" "First Dance" Portal:Usher

USHER TERRY RAYMOND 4 BORN 14 1977 AWE

Look up OMG in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

OMG may refer to:

• Oh My God, Oh My Goodness, or Oh My Gosh, a common abbreviation used in SMS, Instant Messaging and other internet communication.
  • omg!, a celebrity news and gossip Web site run by Yahoo.com
  • OMG! Magazine, a news, entertainment and lifestyle magazine serving gay, lesbian and trans-gender audiences in print and online.
  • "OMG (Oh My Gosh)", a song by Sabrina Washington
  • "OMG" (song), a song by Usher featuring will.i.am
  • OMGcon, an annual anime and gaming convention in Paducah, Kentucky, U.S.
  • OMG particle, an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray observed on the evening of 15 October 1991
  • OMG! Ubuntu!, on line tech magazine
• Object Management Group, the consortium responsible for CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture), Unified Modeling Language (UML), and Model-Driven Architecture (MDA)
• Old Melbourne Gaol, an old prison, now museum of law & crime in Melbourne, Australia
• Old Man Gloom, a band originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Old Mutual Group, an international insurance company
• Olympiad of Misguided Geeks, a programming contest on The Daily WTF
• Omega
• OM Group, a chemistry firm based in Cleveland, Ohio, stock symbol NYSE:OMG
• One Man Gang, George Gray, former professional wrestler also known as Akeem
• OpenMG file format's Filename extension
• Operation Market Garden, an Allied plan in World War II
• Operational manoeuvre group, a Soviet organisational maneuver warfare concept
• Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs

See also[link]

• Oh My God (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Three singers-a trio-singing a song while accompanied on a lute played by one of the singers. Das Konzert [The Concert] (c. 1490, Lorenzo Costa).

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing. A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs. The lyrics (words) of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, though they may be religious verses or free prose.

A song may be for a solo singer, a duet, trio, or larger ensemble involving more voices. Songs with more than one voice to a part are considered choral works. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used. One division is between "art songs", "pop songs", and "folk songs". Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, Lied, etc.), or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc.).

A song is a piece of music for accompanied or unaccompanied voice or voices or, "the act or art of singing," but the term is generally not used for large vocal forms including opera and oratorio.^[1] However, the term is, "often found in various figurative and transferred sense (e.g. for the lyrical second subject of a sonata...)."^[1] The noun "song" has the same etymological root as the verb "to sing" and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines the word to mean "that which is sung" or "a musical composition suggestive of song." The OED also defines the word to mean "a poem" or "the musical phrases uttered by some birds, whales, and insects, typically forming a recognizable and repeated sequence and used chiefly for territorial defence or for attracting mates." ^[2]

Cultural types[link]

Art songs[link]

Art songs are songs created for performance in their own right, usually with piano accompaniment, although they can also have other types of accompaniment such as an orchestra or string quartet, and are always notated. Generally they have an identified author and composer and require voice training for acceptable performance. German-speaking communities use the term art song ("Kunstlied") to distinguish so-called "serious" compositions from folk song ("Volkslied"). The lyrics are often written by a poet or lyricist and the music separately by a composer. Art songs may be more formally complicated than popular or folk songs, though many early Lieder by the likes of Franz Schubert are in simple strophic form. They are often important to national identity.

Art songs feature in many European cultures, including but not limited to: Russian (romancy), German (Lieder), Italian (canzoni), French (mélodies), Scandinavian (sånger), Portuguese (canções), Spanish (canciones). There are also highly regarded British and American art songs in the English language. Cultures outside of Europe that have a classical music tradition, such as India, may or may not feature art songs. The accompaniment of European art songs is considered as an important part of the composition.

The art song of the period in which they originally flowered is often a duet in which the vocalist and accompanist share in interpretive importance. The pieces were most often written to be performed in a home or salon setting, although today the works enjoy popularity as concert pieces. The emergence of poetry during this era was much of what inspired the creation of these pieces by Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and other composers. These composers set poems in their native language. Many works were inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Another method would be to write new music for each stanza to create a unique form; this was through-composed form known in German as durchkomponiert. A combination of both of these techniques in a single setting was called a modified strophic form. Often romantic art songs sharing similar elements were grouped as a song cycle.^[3]

Folk songs[link]

Folk songs are songs of often anonymous origin (or are public domain) that are transmitted orally. They are frequently a major aspect of national or cultural identity. Art songs often approach the status of folk songs when people forget who the author was. Folk songs are also frequently transmitted non-orally (that is, as sheet music), especially in the modern era. Folk songs exist in almost every culture.

Popular songs[link]

Modern popular songs are typically distributed as recordings and are played on the radio, though all other mass media that have audio capabilities are involved. Their relative popularity is inferred from commercially significant sales of recordings, ratings of stations and networks that play them, and ticket sales for concerts by the recording artists. A popular song can become a modern folk song when members of the public who learn to sing it from the recorded version teach their version to others. Popular songs may be called pop songs for short, although pop songs or pop music may instead be considered a more commercially popular genre of popular music as a whole.

See also[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Song

• Air (music)
• Animal song: bird song, whale song, zoomusicology
• Aria
• Ballad
• Canticle
• Category:Musical forms
• Hymn
• Instrumental
• Lied
• Madrigal (music)
• Song structure (popular music)
• Vocal music
• Theme song
• Poem and song
• Singing

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Marcello Sorce Keller (1984), "The Problem of Classification in Folksong Research: a Short History", Folklore, XCV, no. 1, 100- 104.

Paresh Rawal
Paresh Rawal at Swaroop Rawal's new book launch
Born	(1950-05-30) 30 May 1950 (age 62) Ahmedabad, India
Occupation	Actor, Television producer
Years active	1984 - Present
Spouse	Swaroop Sampat

Paresh Rawal (born 30 May 1950) is an Indian Hindi film actor of Gujarati background.

He made his debut in the film industry in 1984 played supporting and villain roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2000, he has started playing comic roles^[1] and has succeeded in it.

Family and early life[link]

Paresh was born in Ahmedabad, India. He is married to Swaroop Sampat, an actress and winner of the Miss India contest in 1979. Paresh and Swaroop have two sons - Aditya and Aniruddh. Paresh Rawal is an alumnus from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce & Economics, Vile Parle, Mumbai.^[2]

Career[link]

Rawal made his debut with the 1984 film Holi. He then appeared in over 100 films throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Paresh Rawal's biggest hit was Hera Pheri.

Before he attained national recognition, in 1991 Rawal achieved recognition and adulation for his role of a bank robber in Kshana Kshanam. His quirky accent and mannerisms made him an instant hit. He acted in quite a few Telugu films by the RGV school of direction like Money and Govinda Govinda.

In 1994, he won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in the films Woh Chokri and Sir.^[3] For the latter, he also received his first Filmfare Award for Best Comedian. This was followed by Ketan Mehta's Sardar, which saw him playing the lead role of freedom fighter Vallabhbhai Patel, a role that got him not only national but international acclaim.^[3] He followed it with the film Tamanna (1996), in which he played the role of a Hijra (person of "third" gender, typically male transgender) who raises a young, orphaned girl, played by Pooja Bhatt.^[3]

In 2000, Rawal played a dim-witted and boisterous, but kind-hearted Marathi landlord Baburao Ganpatrao Apte in the film Hera Pheri, who takes in Raju (Akshay Kumar) and Shyam (Sunil Shetty) as paying guests in his house. Rawal's acting was a key reason for the major nationwide success the film received.^[4] For his performance, he won the Filmfare Best Comedian Award. Apart from doing comdey roles he played negative roles in 'King Uncle', 'Kabzaa', 'Ram Lakhan', 'Daud', 'Baazi' etc. He reprised his role as Baburao in the sequel to the film, Phir Hera Pheri (2006), which was also successful.^[3]