Here I Stand is the fifth studio album by the American singer Usher, released on May 13, 2008, by LaFace Records. Inspired by love for his then-wife—Tameka Foster—and son, Usher recorded many ballads for the album. Prior to the album's recording, Usher split with his mother, Jonnetta Patton, as manager and hired Benny Medina. Usher's estranged father died months before the release of Here I Stand; this also influenced themes of the album. It was originally to be titled Measure of a Man, but Usher named it Here I Stand to mark "a new chapter in life".
Usher promoted Here I Stand by performing on several television shows including Total Request Live, 106 & Park and Good Morning America. Among other concert appearances, he embarked on a One Night Stand: Ladies Only Tour, performing fifteen shows in November 2008. Six singles were released from Here I Stand: "Love in This Club", "Love in This Club Part II", "Moving Mountains", "What's Your Name", "Here I Stand" and "Trading Places". "Love in This Club", which features rapper Young Jeezy, topped the Billboard Hot 100 and New Zealand Singles Chart.
Here I Stand received generally positive reviews from music critics, who viewed it as a sign of growth and maturity from Usher, although others were unimpressed by the change in style from his 2004 album Confessions. It debuted atop the Billboard 200, and sold 433,000 copies in the US in its first week of release, and as of 2010, has sold 1.3 million copies in that country. The album also reached number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, UK Albums Chart and Australian Albums Chart.
Although it had sold two million copies by August 2008, Here I Stand was seen as a commercial failure relative to Confessions, which had sold fifteen million copies. Tyler Lewis of PopMatters put the album's limited success down to Usher's and Foster's marriage; he believed that Usher's fans disliked Foster.
Background
In 2004, Usher's fourth studio album, Confessions was released, becoming the most-shipped album of the year in the United States. Before the album's release, he broke up with his girlfriend Chilli. In December 2005, he became romantically involved with stylist Tameka Foster; the two wed on August 3, 2007, although Usher's mother and manager, Jonnetta Patton, did not attend. Foster gave birth to Usher Raymond V later that year. In May 2007, Usher split with Patton as his manager. This prompted "gossip" that Usher had "fired" her because of his growing relationship with Foster. He denied the claims, saying, "I love my mother ... I decided not to fire, not get rid of, but to give [my mother] the ultimate compliment—to retire her to be a full-time grandmother." He continued by stating that the split was a mutual decision. It was speculated that Patton's dismissal was due to his engagement with Foster; Usher dismissed these claims on Total Request Live (TRL) in May 2008. In what MTV News' Shawn Adler called an "angry tirade", Usher stated, "My wife had nothing to do with me firing my mother — nothing like that, that's trash. I hear y'all talking crazy out there. She's a beautiful black woman. Stop. Stop talking. And I love her. Stop it." The outbreak was compared to Mariah Carey's unannounced 2001 appearance on TRL, when she handed out popsicles to the show's audience and performed a "striptease", while some fans noted Usher's speech as evidence that Foster was being controlling of Usher. Usher hired Benny Medina as his new manager; Medina said of Usher, "The thing that excited me most is the intense commitment to his art, his incredible professionalism and the fact that I feel as though he's just hitting a stride."
