John Legend

John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and record producer. He began his musical career by working behind the scenes, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Everything Is Everything", and making uncredited guest appearances on Jay-Z's "Encore" and Alicia Keys's "You Don't Know My Name". He then signed to Kanye West's GOOD Music and released his debut album ''Get Lifted'' (2004), which reached the top ten on the ''Billboard'' 200 and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Legend received nine nominations at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, including nominations for the singles " So High" with Lauryn Hill and "Ordinary People", with the latter song winning for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. The album also earned him awards for Best New Artist and Best R&B Album. His second studio album ''Once Again'' (2006), spawned the single "Save Room", and became his second top ten album on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart. The lead single from his third album ''Evolver'' (2008), " Green Light" featuring André 3000, reached the top 40 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and was certified platinum by the RIAA. In June 2008, he released the live album '' John Legend: Live from Philadelphia''.

Legend would later collaborate with The Roots on the album ''Wake Up!'' (2010). His fourth studio album, '' Love in the Future'' (2013), spawned the single " All of Me". The song peaked at number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and has attained Diamond status, being certified 14× platinum by the RIAA. In 2015, he was featured on the single "Like I'm Gonna Lose You" by Meghan Trainor, which reached the top ten in the U.S. Legend has since released the albums ''Darkness and Light'' (2016), '' A Legendary Christmas'' (2018). In 2020 Legend published his seventh studio album ''Bigger Love,'' which won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, and in 2022 the double album ''Legend''.

In 2007, Legend received the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Legend won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Golden Globe Award in 2015 for co-writing the song " Glory" from the film ''Selma''. He has received a total of twelve Grammy Awards. In 2017, Legend won a Tony Award for co-producing ''Jitney'' for the Broadway stage. In 2018, Legend portrayed Jesus Christ in NBC's adaptation of the rock opera '' Jesus Christ Superstar''. He received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his acting role, and won for his role as a producer of the show, making him the first black man and second youngest person to have won all four of the major American entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). Legend is also the recipient of the NAACP's President's Award. From 2019 to 2022, Legend was featured as a coach on ''The Voice''.

Early life

Legend was born John Roger Stephens on December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio. He is the eldest of four children of Phyllis Elaine (née Lloyd), a seamstress, and Ronald Lamar Stephens, a factory worker at International Harvester (now Navistar). His father was a drummer, while "his mother sang and directed the church choir, and his grandmother was the church organist." In 2004, Legend stated that his parents were divorced for 12 years before reuniting. Legend was homeschooled by his mother. He began playing the piano at age 4. At the age of 7, he performed with his church choir. Because of his academic talent, he skipped two grades.

At the age of 12, Legend attended North High School in Springfield, Ohio, from which he graduated as salutatorian of his class four years later. At the age of 15, Legend won a Black History Month essay competition run by McDonalds, 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''. Legend was offered admission to Harvard University and scholarships to Georgetown University and Morehouse College; he ultimately decided to attend the University of Pennsylvania.

At college, Legend 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 Penn 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. Legend was also a member of the Sphinx Senior Society and Onyx Senior Honor Society. While in college, 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''. He graduated '' magna cum laude'' with a bachelor's degree in English with an emphasis on African-American literature in 1999.

Career

Career beginnings

After graduating from college, Legend worked as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and began producing, writing, and recording his own music. 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.

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.

2004–2007: Breakthrough success

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. It went on to sell 540,300 copies in the United States and was certified gold by the RIAA. 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. 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.

A highly sought after collaborator, 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. 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. He also performed during the pregame show of ''Super Bowl XL'' in Detroit and the halftime show at the ''2006 NBA All-Star Game''.

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. 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.

2008–2010: Rising popularity

In January 2008, Legend sang in a video for Barack Obama, produced by will.i.am called " Yes We Can". The same year, Legend had a supporting, singing-only role in the 2008 movie '' Soul Men'', where he plays the deceased lead singer of a fictitious soul group that includes Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac. In October, he released his third studio album, '' Evolver''. Speaking about the reasons for calling the album ''Evolver'', he stated: "I think people sometimes come to expect certain things from certain artists. They expect you to kind of stay in the same place you were at when you started out. Whereas I feel I want my career to be defined by the fact that I'm NOT gonna stay in the same place, and that I'm always gonna try new things and experiment. So, as I think this album represents a manifestation of that, I came up with the title 'Evolver'." The album was preceded by dance-pop-influenced uptempo single " Green Light" which featured rapper Andre 3000 of OutKast and became his highest-charting single since "Ordinary People"; it was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. On March 30, 2008, Legend performed "America the Beautiful" in front of a sold-out crowd of 74,635 in the Orlando Citrus Bowl, now known as Camping World Stadium, for WWE's WrestleMania XXIV.

In 2009, Legend performed in ''The People Speak'', a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's '' A People's History of the United States''. Also in 2009, Legend and the Roots teamed up to record a collaborative album, '' Wake Up!'', which was released on September 21, 2010. The first single released from the album was "Wake Up Everybody" featuring singer Melanie Fiona

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