This comes on the heels of Usher jumping into multiple spotlights. Back in September of 2023, Usher was announced as the headlining performer of the NFL Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show in Las Vegas. Much of the conversation following that of course went to speculation of his set list and who he might collaborate with. In December of 2023, Usher worked alongside BTS’ Jung Kook for a remix of the latter’s single “Standing Next to You” and released a music video shortly after the single dropped. Earlier this month, as the next stage of the publicity ramp-up, Usher released a trailer for his Super Bowl performance and announced his next album, Coming Home, which will be released on the day of the Super Bowl, making his first album release since 2016.
“Standing Next to You” is relevant for a couple of reasons. One, the song plays in the background of Usher’s Gojo TikTok video. But two (hilariously), Jujutsu Kaisen fans have been speculating about a possible easter egg in the lyrics of the remix. In the outro, it sounds like Usher adlibs the word “Gojo,” but this was dismissed as nonsense for weeks. Now that Usher has used that section of the song in a Gojo cosplay, it looks like some people are owed an apology.
Unfortunately for Jujutsu Kaisen anime-only watchers though, Usher, included a massive spoiler in the caption of his TikTok, so you should avoid it if you’re looking to avoid spoilers. If you’re clear on the spoiler warning, the TikTok is linked here. The spoiler was:
At the time of publication, about 4 million people had seen the TikTok, with millions of additional views from the hundreds of thousands of shares, meaning it’s quite likely that millions of anime-only watchers will see this spoiler. Obviously, this is a massive revelation to anyone not caught up with the manga and it really speaks to how impossible it is to avoid spoilers at this stage of social media. The Yuji-esque double hit of Jujutsu Kaisen manga leaks + official manga release hitting social media is hard to avoid, let alone posts from stars and celebrities you might follow. The spoiler is unfortunate, but maybe this means we’ll see Usher in Gojo cosplay moonwalking on Super Bowl Sunday. Roc Nation has certainly done weirder shows.
Source: @usher on TikTok
© Gege Akutami / Shueisha, JUJUTSU KAISEN Production Committee