Usher Addresses Keke Palmer Vegas Controversy: ‘It Was a Pop Moment’

The slow dance between Usher and Keke Palmer set the world on fire last month, and now the Grammy-winning R&B icon is finally revealing his thoughts on the whole ordeal.

“Every night I’m thinking about how the world now is going to react to this moment that I’ll have with whoever I’m choosing to sing to,” Usher told People. “But it was a pop moment, and it was fun to have at least conversation going, and we just keep it light. I don’t see anything negative happening in Las Vegas.”

Last month, the two entertainers made headlines when Palmer attended Usher’s show in a sheer dress with a bodysuit underneath. Usher serenaded the Emmy-winning actress while singing his hit “There Goes My Baby,” as the two shared a cheeky-but-respectful dance. Once footage of the moment hit social media, Darius Jackson — Palmer’s boyfriend and the father of her child — publicly denigrated her choice of outfit, tweeting, “It’s the outfit tho… you a mom.”

In a follow-up tweet, Jackson elaborated, “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is. This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case.” For her part, Palmer never publicly responded to Jackson’s comments and instead continued to post more pictures of herself and her outfit from that night.

“I think everybody’s vision or a version of what they felt happened there just leads you back to just really having a good time in Las Vegas,” Usher said. “And that’s what I hope came out of it. Rather, it was a conversation of what was going on with us having fun in front of the audience or conversation about that song.”

The “Burn” singer has since embraced a nickname granted to him by the Internet: the “Domestic Terrorist.” “The internet is crazy. You can’t beat the internet,” he joked.