“My Boo” by Usher featuring Alicia Keys: twenty-two years old, and still the most civilised conversation ever had between two people who used to wake up next to each other.
In 2026, “My Boo” sits on over 1.2 billion Spotify streams. Confessions, the album that carried it, went Diamond within four years of its 2004 release, and Usher’s combined 28 weeks at No. 1 that year remains a statistical anomaly. The song itself has now outlasted most of the relationships it soundtracked. A duet about a dead romance that refuses to die.
Early in the song, Usher asks if she remembers her first kiss. He gave it to her. “Put your lips like this,” he said, a line so specific it feels stolen from someone’s actual memory. Then Alicia Keys answers, not with resentment but with a kind of warm precision. “After we kissed, I could only think about your lips.” No villain. No victim. Just two adults who split up and never fully exorcised each other.
That’s what “My Boo” is about. Two people who have moved on, but remain emotionally tethered to their first real love, the one that never quite leaves. Alicia Keys has said the song reflects “the first person you ever really had feelings for,” someone you carry even after everything else changes.
Usher co-wrote the track with Keys, Jermaine Dupri, Adonis Shropshire, and Manuel Seal. Dupri and Seal are the credited producers, with uncredited contributions from No I.D., whose work leans on a sample of Love Unlimited’s 1977 track “He’s All I’ve Got.” The result is a mid-tempo R&B record built on a sighing string loop, acoustic guitar, and drums that walk instead of run.
Dupri has said he wanted a duet that felt like a real back-and-forth, not two singers taking polite turns. The writers built a dialogue where Keys mirrors and subtly rewrites Usher’s chorus lines back at him. That structural choice is why it never sounds like a battle. It sounds like remembering the same thing from two different angles. The song is literally constructed as a conversation, with alternating chorus variations reinforcing that shared memory.
Confessions was already blurring autobiography with mythmaking. Usher played coy about whether its infidelity narratives mirrored his relationship with TLC’s Chilli. “My Boo” arrived differently. Not scandal, not confession, but recognition. A quieter truth. It wasn’t even part of the original album. The track leaked online and was later added to the special edition before becoming the fourth single.
The song became that fourth No. 1 from Confessions, spending six weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. A rare demo featuring a different singer, often misidentified online as Beyoncé, actually features Kortney Leveringston. The official version belongs to Keys. Her verse turns his “you were mine” into something softer, more grounded. Less possession, more memory.
The music video, co-directed by Usher and Chris Robinson, places them in separate New York apartments, then on separate journeys, finally meeting in Times Square. They embrace, on the brink of a kiss, before the moment dissolves back into the city. Not a reunion. Not closure. Just recognition.
At the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show, Keys walked out in a red catsuit, sat at a piano, played “If I Ain’t Got You,” and Usher slid in to turn it into “My Boo.” On the biggest stage in American television, two forty-somethings performed a song about teenage love without irony. Not nostalgia as product. Nostalgia as fact.
The term “boo” itself, derived from the French beau, filtered into American slang through Caribbean influence and 1990s hip-hop culture before becoming mainstream. Dupri didn’t invent it, but he understood its emotional weight. He took a piece of slang and turned it into something permanent.
That’s what “My Boo” actually is. Not an anthem. Not a throwback. Just a quiet, stubborn fact. You can be happy with someone new and still carry an old love like a coin in your pocket. Not heavy. Just there.
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Usher, Alicia Keys My Boo Lyrics
Intro: Usher, Alicia Keys & Both
There’s always that one person that will always have your heart
You’ll never see it comin’ ’cause you’re blinded from the start
Know that you’re that one for me, it’s clear for everyone to see
Ooh baby, ooh, yeah (You gotta rock away to this one)
You will always be my boo (Come on)
See, I don’t know ’bout y’all, but I know about us and, uh (Oh!)
It’s the only way we know how to rock
I don’t know ’bout y’all, but I know about us and, uh (Oh!)
It’s the only way we know how to rock
Verse 1: Usher
Do you remember, girl?
I was the one who gave you your first kiss
‘Cause I remember, girl
I was the one who said, “Put your lips like this”
Even before all the fame and people screamin’ your name
Girl, I was there when you were my baby
Chorus: Usher & Alicia Keys
It started when we were younger, you were mine (My boo)
Now, another brother’s taken over, but it’s still in your eyes (My boo)
Even though we used to argue, it’s alright (It’s alright, girl, that’s okay)
I know we haven’t seen each other in a while
But you will always be my boo
I was in love with you when we were younger, you were mine (My boo)
And I see it from time to time, I still feel like (My boo, that’s my baby)
And I can see it no matter how I try to hide (I can’t hide it, my boo)
And even though there’s another man who’s in my life
You will always be my boo
Verse 2: Alicia Keys with Usher
Yes, I remember, boy
‘Cause after we kissed, I could only think about your lips
Yes, I remember, boy
The moment I knew you were the one I could spend my life with
Even before all the fame and people screamin’ your name
I was there
And you were my baby
Chorus: Usher, Alicia Keys
It started when we were younger, you were mine (You were mine; My boo)
Now, another brother’s taken over, but it’s still in your eyes (Yes, in here; My boo)
Even though we used to argue, it’s alright (It’s alright now, it’s okay; My boo)
I know we haven’t seen each other in a while
But you will always be my boo
I was in love with you when we were younger, you were mine(You were mine, my boo; My boo)
And I see it from time to time, I still feel like (It’s still in your eyes; My boo)
And I can see it no matter how I try to hide (It’s alright now, it’s okay; My boo)
And even though there’s another man who’s in my life (But we hadn’t seen each other)
You will always be my boo (You will always be my…)
Bridge: Usher, Alicia Keys
Oh, my oh, my oh, my oh, my, my boo
My oh, my oh, my oh, my oh, my boo
Chorus: Usher, Alicia Keys
It started when we were younger, you were mine (You were mine; My boo)
Now another brother’s taken over, but it’s still in your eyes (You were mine) (My boo)
Even though we used to argue, it’s alright (It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s okay, it’s okay) (My boo)
I know we haven’t seen each other in a while (In a while)
But you will always be my boo
[Outro: Usher]
I don’t know about y’all, but I know about us and, uh
It’s the only way we know how to rock
I don’t know about y’all, but I know about us and, uh
It’s the only way we know how to rock
It started when we were younger
My boo
‘Nother brother’s taken over
Just stand
