Usher and Chris Brown Launch the R&B Tour With a Three-Hour Marathon Setlist
I'll be real, when two artists each have enough hits to fill a three-hour stadium show on their own, putting them together on the same stage is either going to be incredible or completely overwhelming. Usher and Chris Brown chose incredible. Their co-headlining Raymond & Brown Tour kicked off Friday night at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, and the setlist alone tells you everything you need to know about what this run is going to be.
Three hours. Nine cinematic acts. Decades of R&B catalog. And they're doing 51 of these through December.
A Nine-Act Experience
The show was structured into nine sections, with Usher and Brown trading solo runs and then sharing the stage for select moments. They opened together with "Party" before Usher peeled off into a run of his own that included "Yeah!," "Caught Up," "U Don't Have To Call," and "Love In This Club." Then Brown took over with "Wall To Wall," "Deuces," "Loyal," "Go Crazy," "Look At Me Now," and "Run It" back to back. That's six massive records in a row before you even catch your breath.
Usher came back for his Superstar act with "U Remind Me," "My Way," "U Make Me Wanna," "My Boo," "Trading Places," "Lovers & Friends," and "Burn." Honestly, any single one of those would be a show closer for most artists. He just ran through them like a Tuesday rehearsal.
Brown answered with a deep cut through his Residuals section, pulling out "It's Not You It's Me," "Fallin'," "Heat," "Warm Embrace," "Something In The Water," "Privacy," "Yo (Excuse Me Miss)," and "Under The Influence." Then the two linked up for "Back To Sleep (Remix)" before the show shifted into a slowed-down Seduction act for Usher and then Brown's solo turn on "Wet The Bed."
The final stretch was a sprint. Usher dropped "OMG," "Good Kisser," "No Limit," "Climax," and "Confessions" while Brown fired back with "Ayo," "Kiss Kiss," "With You," and "Forever." They closed it all out together on "No Guidance" and "New Flame." Over 50 songs total. In a stadium. On opening night.
Special Guests and Intermission
Mario and Eric Bellinger joined as special guests for opening night, with Mario performing a medley of his songs during intermission. No permanent support acts have been announced for the full run yet, but fans are already expecting rotating surprise guests throughout the tour. Given how stacked that Denver lineup was on night one, anything is possible.
Both Artists Are Coming In Hot
The timing on this tour is perfect. Chris Brown dropped his twelfth studio album Brown back in May, a 27-track project with features from YoungBoy Never Broke Again, GloRilla, Bryson Tiller, Tank, and more. He's since followed it up with a deluxe edition, The Chocolate Edition. And his momentum has been building for a while. His 11:11 (Deluxe) album won Best R&B Album at the 2026 Grammys, and his Breezy Bowl XX World Tour wrapped in October 2025 as the highest-grossing tour ever by a solo Black American male artist, pulling in nearly $300 million across stadiums worldwide.
Usher is riding high too. His Past Present Future Tour ran from August 2024 through May 2025, selling over 1.1 million tickets across 83 sold-out shows in North America, the U.K., and Europe. That run came off the back of his Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show performance and his album Coming Home. Most recently, he linked up with The-Dream on the track "Tampa," a Pharrell Williams production that'll appear on Love/Hate II arriving July 10.
51 Dates Through December
This thing is massive. What started as a 33-date announcement has ballooned to 51 dates, with multiple cities getting multi-night runs. Here are some of the key stops:
June 30 – Minneapolis, MN @ U.S. Bank Stadium
July 2, 3 & 5 – Detroit, MI @ Ford Field (three nights)
July 7 – Cleveland, OH @ Huntington Bank Field
July 11 & 13 – Landover, MD @ Northwest Stadium
July 17 & 18 – Charlotte, NC @ Bank of America Stadium
July 25 – Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium
August 1 – Syracuse, NY @ JMA Wireless Dome
August 7 & 8 – East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
August 11 & 12 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium
August 17 – Boston, MA @ Gillette Stadium
August 21 & 22 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field
August 28 – San Francisco, CA @ Levi's Stadium
September 5 & 6 – Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium
September 10 – Dallas, TX @ AT&T Stadium
September 25, 26 & November 15 – Los Angeles, CA @ SoFi Stadium (three nights due to demand)
October 9 – Houston, TX @ NRG Stadium
November 7 & 8 – Atlanta, GA @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium
November 20 & 21 – New Orleans, LA @ Caesars Superdome
December 3 – Miami, FL @ Hard Rock Stadium
December 11 – Tampa, FL @ Raymond James Stadium (final show)
Detroit gets three nights at Ford Field. SoFi added a third date because the first two sold so well. MetLife, Toronto, Chicago, Vegas, Atlanta, and New Orleans all get multi-night runs. That tells you everything about the demand here.
Beyond the Music
There's a bigger picture to this tour beyond just the performances. The R&B Tour partnered with Global Citizen, with $1 from every ticket sold going to the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund for children's education around the world. Usher's nonprofit, Usher's New Look, teamed up with Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Detroit to launch a paid internship program where 10 young people from Detroit and Atlanta will travel with the tour all summer. The Black Music Action Coalition is also running an immersive behind-the-scenes learning experience for aspiring music industry professionals in select markets.
That's a lot of goodwill paired with a lot of hits. You don't always see that at this scale.
VIP and Tickets
Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster and RaymondAndBrownTour.com. VIP packages are available through VIP Nation and include premium seats, a pre-show VIP lounge, a behind-the-scenes venue tour, and exclusive merch. Usher is also running "The Rhythm Section," an exclusive VIP lounge near the main stage inspired by The Cotton Club and Magic City. If you want the full experience, that's where you want to be.
Don't Sleep on This One
Honestly, a co-headlining run between Usher and Chris Brown has been talked about for years. Live Nation's Colin Lewis said the pairing was always a "natural" one, it was just a matter of finding the right moment between their packed schedules. With both artists coming off career-defining solo tours and fresh music, the timing finally lined up.
If you're anywhere near one of these 51 stops, get your tickets before your city sells out. Based on that Denver opener, this is going to be the R&B event of the year, and it's not particularly close.
Cover photo courtesy of Ticketmaster.