Usher, Longtime Partner Jenn Goicoechea Married after Super Bowl

11 February 2024, US, Las Vegas: American singer Usher (C) performs during the Apple Music Halftime Show at Super Bowl LVIII, Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: -/PA Wire/dpa
11 February 2024, US, Las Vegas: American singer Usher (C) performs during the Apple Music Halftime Show at Super Bowl LVIII, Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: -/PA Wire/dpa
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Usher, Longtime Partner Jenn Goicoechea Married after Super Bowl

11 February 2024, US, Las Vegas: American singer Usher (C) performs during the Apple Music Halftime Show at Super Bowl LVIII, Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: -/PA Wire/dpa
11 February 2024, US, Las Vegas: American singer Usher (C) performs during the Apple Music Halftime Show at Super Bowl LVIII, Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: -/PA Wire/dpa

Usher and longtime partner Jenn Goicoechea married in Las Vegas just hours after the R&B superstar's headline appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show, according to officials and documents. The officiant who wed the pair is known to dress as an Elvis Presley impersonator, The Associated Press reported.
The couple married Sunday at Vegas Weddings, according to a marriage certificate made public Monday. The ceremony was officiated by the Rev. Ronald Joseph Polrywka, better known locally as Ron DeCar. Witnesses included Jonnetta Patton, Usher's mother.
“Congratulations to the Newlyweds!" chapel owner Melody Willis-Williams said in a statement. “We were beyond thrilled to host in this epic day for Usher and his new wife.”
“As much as we love, love,” the statement adds, "this is the couple’s news to share any further details on. We’ll always be fans of Usher! Yeah!”
Usher, 45, and Goicoechea, 40, have been together since 2019 and have two young daughters. A representative for Usher, Lydia Kanuga, did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press, including whether the service was conducted in the chapel, on a balcony or in the drive-thru lane.
DeCar did not respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking additional information. A publicist said DeCar declined to comment.
Clark County Clerk Lynn Marie Goya, the head of the county's marriage license bureau, confirmed that her office issued a license to Usher and Goicoechea last week.
“Naturally they got married in Las Vegas," Goya said. "What better place than the ‘Wedding Capital of the World?’”
The document, issued Thursday, lists the couple's full names — Usher Raymond IV and Jennifer Jean Goicoechea — and shows they paid a $102 filing fee. It notes that Usher had been married before and Goicoechea had not. It also listed their business address at a commercial building in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Usher divorced his first wife, Tameka Foster, in 2009 after two years together, and he won custody of their two sons. In December 2018, the singer filed for divorce after three years together with his second wife and former manager, Grace Miguel.
Usher's Super Bowl halftime performance Sunday at Allegiant Stadium drew acclaim and included guest appearances by such stars as Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon and Ludacris. The Kansas City Chiefs won the NFL championship game in overtime, 25-22, over the San Francisco 49ers.
Usher recently ended a two-year Las Vegas Strip residency where he performed “Usher: My Way” at the Park MGM. He just released his first solo album in eight years, and in August is scheduled to kick off a 24-city US tour titled “Past Present Future.”



How the World’s Press Rated Paris’s Olympics Opening Ceremony

Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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How the World’s Press Rated Paris’s Olympics Opening Ceremony

Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Paris broke with tradition on Friday by turning the Olympic Opening Ceremony into a parade down the River Seine rather than a stadium-based show.

TV viewers around the world were treated to a spectacle performed on bridges, the riverbank and rooftops, culminating with French athletes Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner lighting the Olympic cauldron and a performance from Canada's Celine Dion.

However, the 6,000-odd athletes, 3,000 performers, 300,000 spectators and dozens of world leaders had to endure heavy rain for much of the event.

Here's how the world's media judged Paris's ambitious ceremony:

FRANCE

Newspaper Le Monde wrote in a rave review that director Thomas Jolly "succeeded in his challenge of presenting an immersive show in a capital transformed into a gigantic stage".

Right-leaning Le Figaro said the show was "great but some of it was just too much". It said viewers "could have been spared" images including an apparent recreation of the painting of The Last Supper of Jesus and his apostles in front of a fashion show.

UNITED STATES

"Opening Ceremony Misses the Boat" headlined the New York Times's television review.

It wrote that the river parade "turned the ceremony into something bigger, more various and more intermittently entertaining. But it also turned it into something more ordinary — just another bloated made-for-TV spectacle".

The Washington Post was more glowing, noting that the organizer's "bold thinking" brought a shine back to an event that has seen its popularity wane in recent years.

CHINA

China's Xinhua state news agency said the ceremony succeeded in showcasing France.

"There were Can-Can girls, a homage to the reconstruction of Notre Dame and of course the French Revolution, with fireworks, heavy metal and singers who appeared to have lost a battle with the guillotine.

"If there was a downside to the ceremony, it is that any event performed over such a long distance has to struggle with continuity, and the big difference between this ceremony and others is that the parade of athletes was mixed in with the performances."

SOUTH KOREA

South Korean media noted the "impressive" imagination of using the whole city as the backdrop but the event was overshadowed by the country's team being misintroduced as North Korea.

South Korea's CBS radio said while the incident was no doubt an honest mistake, it was disappointing the Paris organizers failed at what should have been a very basic part of the event.

GERMANY

"As beautiful as it was mad," wrote Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine. "France revolutionized the opening ceremony ... by the end even the rain had been defeated."

Tabloid Bild was bowled over by Celine Dion's return to the stage after four years, defying illness to "sing just as in the best of times. She deserves a gold medal for this performance."

BRITAIN

British tabloid The Sun joked "Wet The Games Begin!" on its front page alongside an image of the Eiffel Tower surrounded by laser beams, and described the ceremony as spectacular.

The Daily Mail's headline read "La Farce!", mainly in reference to the train disruption earlier in the day, but the paper also judged Paris's gamble on the weather had "backfired spectacularly".

A writer for the Guardian newspaper described the parade of boats on the Seine as "like watching an endless series of weirdly nationalistic office parties" but concluded Celine Dion had rescued the event with a "jaw dropping" performance.

ITALY

La Gazzetta dello Sport said the ceremony was "something unprecedented, even extraordinary. A great show or a long, tedious work, depending on your point of view and sensibility."

The mainstream Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera likened the show to a contemporary art performance, noting that "some (spectators) were bored, others were amused, many found the spectacle disappointing".

The left-leaning Italian daily La Repubblica said the ceremony overshadowed the athletes.

"A lot of France, a lot of Paris, very little Olympics.... a mirror that the immortal Paris turned on herself and discovered that she was so much, too much and soaking wet".