“Burn” was released as the second single from Usher’s Confessions album. Reuniting with Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox, the trio created another hit, this time talking about a relationship where the flame has faded. The song’s story is based on experiences of the songwriting trio’s associates, J.D., and Usher himself as “Burn” was created in the aftermath of his public two-year relationship with Chilli from TLC.

Usher suggested “Burn” as the lead single for Confessions but “Yeah!” became the lead single after it was leaked and received a favorable response. “Burn” reached the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, causing Usher to knock his own single “Yeah!” out of the #1 spot. “Burn” also reached the top spot on multiple international pop charts and achieved platinum status in several countries, including a quadruple platinum RIAA certification in the US.

In a 2014 interview with VH1, Usher talked about “Burn”:

I pushed for ‘Burn’ to be the first single, because I felt that I was redefining the standard for the R&B ballad. It was the one thing I was most certain about. It was the one thing I felt spoke to who I was as an artist and what this album represented.

‘Burn’ came to me in the reality in of what I was going through. I woke up, went to the studio, had it in my mind, serviced it to J.D. In a lot of cases, I’ll have a title of a song and then I’ll start working on it from there. Melodies start to go down and we go on from there.