John Legend
John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, record producer, and actor. He began his musical career working behind the scenes for other artists, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's "Everything Is Everything," and performing as an uncredited backing vocalist on Jay-Z's "Encore" and Alicia Keys' "You Don't Know My Name". He was the first artist to sign with Kanye West's GOOD Music, through which he released his debut studio album, Get Lifted (2004). The album reached the top ten of the Billboard 200, received double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and spawned his first hit song, "Ordinary People."
John Legend
- Singer
- songwriter
- pianist
- record producer
- actor
1997–present
4
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
- Vocals
- piano
- keyboards
Legend won three Grammy Awards from eight nominations at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards—"Ordinary People" won Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, Get Lifted won Best R&B Album, and Legend won Best New Artist. The album's follow-up single, "So High" (remixed with Lauryn Hill), was nominated for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. His second album, Once Again (2006) was met with continued success, supported by the lead single "Save Room." His third album, Evolver (2008) further diversified his artistry with other genres; its funk-inspired lead single, "Green Light" (featuring André 3000) peaked within the top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 and received double platinum certification by the RIAA. That same year, Legend released the live album John Legend: Live from Philadelphia (2008), followed by his collaborative album, Wake Up! (2010) with Philadelphia-based hip hop band the Roots.
Legend's fourth studio album, Love in the Future (2013) was preceded by the hit single "All of Me". The pop ballad saw his furthest commercial success as it peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100, spent 23 consecutive weeks in the chart's top ten, and received diamond (14× platinum) certification by the RIAA. In 2015, he co-performed with Meghan Trainor on her single "Like I'm Gonna Lose You", which peaked at number seven on the chart. The following year, he released his fifth album Darkness and Light (2016) and departed from GOOD Music. Legend has since released A Legendary Christmas (2018), Bigger Love (2020)—which won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album—and his ninth album, Legend (2022).
Throughout his musical career, Legend has received a total of 12 Grammy Awards. In 2007, he won the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.[2] Legend won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Golden Globe Award for his 2015 single "Glory" (with Common), which was released for the film Selma. He won the NAACP's President's Award in 2016.[3][4] In Broadway acting, Legend won a Tony Award for co-producing the stage play Jitney (2017), and portrayed the titular character in NBC's adaptation of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar (2018). He received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his acting role, and won the award for his role as a producer of the show, making him the first Black male and second youngest recipient of all four of the major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT) in 2018.[5][6] Legend also has served as a vocal coach for the reality competition series The Voice from its sixteenth season to its twenty-second season, and again from its twenty-fourth season; he became the show's senior coach following Blake Shelton's 2023 departure.
Early life and education[edit]
John Roger Stephens was born on December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio.[7] He is the eldest of four children[8] of Phyllis Elaine (née Lloyd), a seamstress, and Ronald Lamar Stephens, a factory worker at International Harvester.[9][10][11][12] His father was a drummer, while "his mother sang and directed the church choir, and his grandmother was the church organist."[13]
In 2004, Legend stated that his parents were divorced for 12 years before reuniting.[14] Legend was homeschooled by his mother.[15] He began playing the piano at age 4.[16][17] At the age of 7, he performed with his church choir.[18] Because of his academic talent, he skipped two grades.[13]
At the age of 12, Legend entered North High School in Springfield, Ohio[13] and graduated as salutatorian. At the age of 15, Legend won a Black History Month essay competition sponsored by McDonald's, following the prompt "How do you intend to make Black history?" with an essay about how he intended to be a successful musician, according to an interview on the Carlos Watson Show.[19]
At the age of 16, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he served as the president and musical director of the co-ed jazz and pop a cappella group the Counterparts. His lead vocals on the group's recording of Joan Osborne's "One of Us", written by fellow University of Pennsylvania alum Eric Bazilian of the Hooters, received critical acclaim, landing the song on the track list of the 1998 Best of Collegiate a Cappella compilation CD.[20] Legend was also a member of the Sphinx Senior Society, one of Penn's undergraduate senior societies, and Onyx Senior Honor Society. While at Penn, Legend was introduced to Lauryn Hill by a friend. Hill hired him to play piano on "Everything Is Everything", a song from her album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.[21] He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English with an emphasis on African-American literature[22] in 1999.[23]
Career[edit]
Career beginnings[edit]
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Legend worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and began producing, writing, and recording his own music.[13] He released two albums independently: his self-titled demo (2000) and Live at Jimmy's Uptown (2001), which he sold at his shows. He subsequently began working on his demo and began sending his work to various record labels.[15][14]
In 2001, Devo Springsteen introduced Legend to Kanye West, then an up-and-coming hip-hop artist; Legend was hired to sing during the hooks of West's music. After signing to West's label, he chose his stage name from an idea that was given to him by poet J. Ivy, due to what he perceived as an "old-school sound". J. Ivy stated, "I heard your music and it reminds me of that music from the old school. You sound like one of the legends. As a matter of fact, that's what I'm going to call you from now on! I'm going to call you John Legend." After J. Ivy continued to call him by the new moniker "John Legend", others quickly caught on, including Kanye West. Despite Stephens' reluctance to adopt a stage name, he eventually announced his new artist name as John Legend.[21][24]
2004–2007: Debut album and Grammy Award[edit]
Legend released his debut album, Get Lifted, on GOOD Music in December 2004. It featured production by Kanye West, Dave Tozer, and will.i.am, and debuted at number 7 on the US Billboard 200, selling 116,000 copies in its first week.[25] It went on to sell 540,300 copies in the United States and was certified gold by the RIAA.[26][27] An international success, Get Lifted also reached number one on the Norwegian Albums Chart and peaked within the top ten in the Netherlands and Sweden, resulting in worldwide sales of 850,000 copies.[21] Critically acclaimed, it won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, and earned Legend another two nominal awards for Best New Artist and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Altogether, the album produced four singles, including debut single "Used to Love U", which entered the top 30 of the New Zealand and UK Singles Chart, and Grammy Award-winning "Ordinary People" which peaked at 24 on the Billboard Hot 100. Legend also co-wrote Janet Jackson's "I Want You", which was certified platinum and received a nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards.[28]
Legend was featured on several records in the following years. He appeared on albums by Fort Minor, Sérgio Mendes, Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, the Black Eyed Peas, Stephen Colbert, Rich Boy, J'Dillian MSTRKRFT, Chemistry, and Fergie, among others. Legend also tentatively worked with Michael Jackson on a future album for which he had written one song.[29] In August 2006, Legend appeared in an episode of Sesame Street. He performed a song entitled "It Feels Good When You Sing a Song", a duet with Hoots the Owl.[30] He also performed during the pregame show of Super Bowl XL in Detroit and the halftime show at the 2006 NBA All-Star Game.[31][32]
In October 2006, Legend's second album, Once Again, was released. Legend co-wrote and co-produced the bulk of the album, which saw him reteaming with West and will.i.am but also spawned production from Raphael Saadiq, Craig Street, Sa-Ra, Eric Hudson, Devo Springsteen, Dave Tozer and Avenue.[33] Released to major commercial success, it reached number three on the Billboard 200 and debuted on top of the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA, and reached gold status in Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. At the 2007 Grammy Awards ceremony, the song "Heaven" was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, while lead single "Save Room" received a nod in the Best Male Pop Vocal category. Legend won a second Grammy that year for "Family Affair", a collaboration with Sly & the Family Stone, Joss Stone and Van Hunt, for the former's Different Strokes by Different Folks album.
Philanthropy[edit]
Legend performed a benefit concert in Springfield, Ohio in 2005 in support of a tax levy for the Springfield City School District.[75]
In May 2007, Legend partnered with Tide laundry detergent to raise awareness about the need of families in St. Bernard Parish (Chalmette, Louisiana), one of the areas most devastated by Hurricane Katrina; he spent a day folding laundry at the Tide "clean start" mobile laundromat and visited homes that Tide was helping to rebuild in that community. On July 7, 2007, Legend participated in the Live Earth concert in London, performing "Ordinary People". After reading Professor Jeffrey Sachs' book The End of Poverty, Legend started his Show Me Campaign in 2007. In this campaign, Legend called on his fans to help him in his initiative for residents in Bosaso Village, Somalia[76] and non-profit organizations partnered with the campaign.
In early 2008, he began touring with Alexus Ruffin and Professor Jeff Sachs of Columbia University's Earth Institute to promote sustainable development as an achievable goal. Legend joined Sachs as a keynote speaker and performer at the inaugural Millennium Campus Conference. Legend then joined the Board of Advisors of the Millennium Campus Network (MCN), and has aided MCN programs through online support and funding fellowships for MCN summer interns through the Show Me Campaign. In 2009, Legend gave AIDS Service Center NYC permission to remix his song "If You're Out There" to create a music video promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and testing.[77]
On January 22, 2010, he performed "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" on the Hope for Haiti Now telethon show.[78] On September 8, 2010, John Legend joined the national board of Teach For America.[79] Legend also sits on the boards of the Education Equality Project, the Harlem Village Academies, and Stand for Children. He serves on the Harlem Village Academies' National Leadership Board. On September 9, 2010, he performed "Coming Home" on the Colbert Report as a tribute song for the end of combat operations in Iraq, and for the active troops and the veterans of the United States Armed Forces.[80] In 2011, he contributed the track "Love I've Never Known" to the Red Hot Organization's most recent album Red Hot+Rio 2. The album is a follow-up to the 1996 Red Hot+Rio. Proceeds from the album sales were donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues. On March 6, 2012, John Legend was appointed by the World Economic Forum to the Forum of Young Global Leaders.[81] Later that year, Legend stopped by Children's Hospital Los Angeles for a surprise visit and acoustic performance as a part of Get Well Soon Tour.[82] On June 1, 2013, Legend performed at Gucci's global concert event in London whose campaign, "Chime for Change", aims to raise awareness of women's issues in education, health and justice.[83] At a press conference before his performance, Legend identified himself as a feminist saying, "All men should be feminists. If men care about women's rights the world will be a better place."[84]
In 2014, Legend founded the FREEAMERICA campaign, which aims to help reform incarceration in the United States.[85] He also supported the 2018 ballot initiative to pass Florida Amendment 4, which restored the voting rights of Floridians with felony convictions.[86]
In 2016, Legend co-signed a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling for a more humane drug policy, along with people such as Richard Branson, Jane Fonda, and George Shultz.[87] The following year, Legend appeared on Salem State University's speaker series and was recognized by Voices Against Injustice (formerly known as the Salem Award Foundation for Human Rights and Social Justice) as the inaugural Salem Advocate for Social Justice.[88] Also in 2017 Legend donated $500,000 to Springfield City School District to renovate an auditorium, which is named in his honor, within the Springfield Center of Innovation.[89] He performed at the John Legend Theater on October 9, 2016.[90] In 2018, he starred in an animated virtual-reality short film written and directed by Eric Darnell, titled Crow: The Legend, together with Oprah Winfrey, telling a Native American origin tale.[91] He also sits on the advisory board & is a financial supporter of FUSE Corps, mitigating racial inequality and breaking down barriers which contribute to racism.
Personal life[edit]
Legend met model Chrissy Teigen in 2006 while filming the music video for his song "Stereo".[92][93] They became engaged in December 2011[94][95] and were married on September 14, 2013, in Como, Italy.[96] His 2013 song "All of Me" is dedicated to her. The couple has four children: a daughter born in April 2016,[97] a son born in May 2018,[98] and a daughter born in January 2023.[99] Their first three children were all conceived via in vitro fertilization.[100][99] On June 28, 2023, Teigen announced on social media that the couple had a fourth child, a son, born via surrogacy on June 19, 2023.[101]
In 2020, the couple was expecting a third child,[102] but Teigen lost the baby at twenty weeks due to a pregnancy complication.[103] The pregnancy loss was described by media as a late miscarriage; in 2022, Teigen clarified that the loss was "an abortion to save my life for a baby that had absolutely no chance."[104][105][106]
On the PBS series Finding Your Roots, it was determined that Legend's genetic makeup is 64% African, 32% European, and 4% Native American.[107]
Studio albums