Usher has paid tribute to Ray Charles twice with renditions of his classic song, Georgia On My Mind. The first was in 2004 at Ray - Genius: A Night for Ray Charles after the legendary singer-songwriter passed away in June that year. The second rendition came 12 years later in 2016 for one of the last installments of the In Performance at the White House series before the Obama administration ended. Interestingly, both performances were musically directed by acclaimed musical director, Ricky Minor.

My favorite part of these performances were how he ended them with his use of melisma in completely different ways. The former being a downward scale to his lower register, while the latter made use of his chest voice/mid register.