Songfacts®:

• This song was created by American songwriter/producer Rico Love and Australian electronic duo Empire of the Sun, who are noted for their track "We Are The People." Usher and Love were inspired to collaborate with the Aussie pair after watching them perform at the 2011 Coachella festival. "Empire Of The Sun I thought, 'Man what an incredible sound', there was something just fresh about," he told NME. "And when we started working on 'Looking for Myself' in fact the week that I wrote and produced the record it was right after we'd come back from Coachella. And having gone to Coachella in California, it really kind of gave us an opportunity to have a restart, because that was certainly a different experience for me."
• Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun also makes a vocal contribution to this track. Other credits on his resume include appearing on Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 song "What We Talkin' About" and co-writing Beyoncé's 4 track, "Rather Die Young."
• Usher discussed the song's meaning with Reuters: "I think a lot of people will relate to 'Looking for Myself,'" he said. "People question, 'Would I be better if I found someone to relate to, or do I just need to get to know myself better?"
• This is the title track of Usher's seventh album, and Rico Love told Billboard magazine that he was a part of the recording process "from beginning to end." The songwriter/producer added what Usher wanted to do on Looking 4 Myself, "was explore himself musically." Love concluded that Usher, "stepped outside of what was safe and normal. He wanted to make an album that expressed where he was going sonically and not just where he's been for the past 12 to 15 years."
• Usher told The Sun how he hooked up with Luke Steele. "I was introduced to Luke backstage at Coachella two years ago," he explained, "and I'd been a huge fan since I'd heard his track 'We Are The People.'
  
  When I traveled to Australia, I talked about meeting him and talked about him in interviews," he continued. "So when I met him at Coachella, I did let him know that I wanted to work with him. And now we are friends. Our kids play together. As long as there is respect then you can work well together and he is very humble and down to earth. He sings on the title track. He adds that little bit of extra texture to it by singing the hook with me."
• There was good news and bad news for Usher when Billboard magazine reported the first week sales for Looking 4 Myself. The good news was that it debuted at #1, making it his fourth chart-topping album on the Billboard 200 chart. The bad news was that the 128,000 copies sold were Usher's smallest first-week sales for a regular studio album since 1997's My Way started with 67,000.