AceShowbiz -

Usher had a busy early morning on May 18. The R&B singer rocked the Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan on the first day of "Today" summer concert series. He pampered the crowd with singles such as "OMG" and "Without U", in addition to playing his new materials "Climax" and "Scream".

Usher is gearing up to release his new studio album "Looking 4 Myself" and will include the two new songs in it. "For me, the last two or three years of my life have been an incredible journey musically and emotionally. So all of the findings of looking for myself went into this album," he explained to host Matt Lauer.

"There's a mantra that I've adopted that goes 'evolve or evaporate.' That's really the meaning of life. If we stand there and don't allow ourselves to evolve musically, in life, or whatever it may be, we'll never see the beauty," he elaborated furthermore.

The concert series will continue until the end of August. Pitbull, The Band Perry, Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, Kenny Chesney, Maroon 5, Flo Rida, Zac Brown Band, Hot Chelle Rae, Train, Jason Mraz and Christina Perri will perform at the upcoming shows.

In addition to those music acts, NBC will have "American Idol" winner and runner-up from this season to make live performances. The "Idol" finale is yet to come, but Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips have secured the gig since they are the final two.