John Legend dwelled in the background for several years before he launched his multi-pronged sneak attack on the entertainment industry. Shortly after he got his first break by playing piano on
Lauryn Hill's Top 40 hit "Everything Is Everything" (1999), the singer and songwriter contributed to recordings by the likes of
Jay-Z and
Janet Jackson, secured a major-label deal through
Kanye West, and made his proper debut with
Get Lifted (2004). The album made
Legend a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning musician, and he was just getting started, neither confined nor burdened by the Recording Academy's Best New Artist designation. Amid a string of distinctive and debonair albums,
Once Again (2006),
Wake Up! (2010),
Darkness and Light (2016), and
Bigger Love (2020) among them,
Legend -- as a composer, actor, and producer -- has excelled with screen and stage pursuits. His triumphs include the Oscar-winning "Glory" (for Selma), the Emmy-winning Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, and the Tony-winning production of Jitney. He is among the first 15 entertainers, and is the first African-American, to have won all four of the major show-business awards.
Born
John Stephens,
John Legend began singing gospel and playing piano as a youngster in his native Springfield, Ohio. He left his home state at 16 to attend the University of Pennsylvania, and directed Counterparts, the school's co-ed a cappella group. Not quite out of his teens,
Stephens was tapped by
Fugees'
Lauryn Hill to play piano on "Everything Is Everything," a Top 40 pop hit in 1999. After completing college,
Stephens moved to New York, where he built a following performing at nightclubs and self-issuing the CDs John Stephens, Live at Jimmy's Uptown, Live at SOB's, and Solo Sessions, Vol.1: Live at the Knitting Factory. These 2000-2004 recordings solidified a career-long partnership with producer
Dave Tozer. The latter two CDs were credited to
John Legend,
Hill's nickname for her hired gun. The alias stuck.
Legend concurrently became an in-demand session musician, background vocalist, and songwriter with contributions to 2003-2004 albums by an array of artists including
the Black Eyed Peas and
will.i.am,
Twista,
Jay-Z,
Janet Jackson,
Slum Village,
Talib Kweli, and
Estelle.
Some of the collaborative recordings, in addition to a
Legend-enhanced remix of
Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You," involved
Kanye West, who signed
Legend to his
Columbia-affiliated GOOD Music.
Legend made his label debut in August 2004 with "Used to Love U," a rolling kiss-off that reached number 32 on the R&B/hip-hop chart and dented the Hot 100 at number 74. The full-length
Get Lifted arrived the last Tuesday of that year -- between holidays, typically a dry period for new releases -- and peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 while topping R&B/hip-hop. The LP was already platinum before the April 2005 release of its biggest single, the piano-and-voice-only ballad "Ordinary People," a number 24 pop hit produced and written with
will.i.am.
Get Lifted led to
Legend's first three Grammy wins: Best R&B Album, Best New Artist, and Best R&B Male Vocal Performance (for "Ordinary People").
Once Again,
Legend's second proper album, was granted a more favorable fourth-quarter release date. Retaining the input of
West and
will.i.am and adding the likes of
Raphael Saadiq and
Sa-Ra to the mix, it arrived in October 2006, performed similarly to the debut chart-wise, and was swiftly platinum-certified -- an indication that the Best New Artist designation wouldn't be a kiss of death for the artist. Although lead single "Save Room" was more successful commercially, second LP A-side "Heaven" made
Legend a repeat Best R&B Male Vocal Performance winner. The same year, he,
Joss Stone, and
Van Hunt took the group R&B Grammy performance award for "Family Affair," their contribution to a
Sly & the Family Stone tribute album.
Between proper studio LPs, Live from Philadelphia was issued in early 2008 and pacified fans until that October, when
Legend released the stylistically adventurous, more pop-oriented
Evolver. His third consecutive number one R&B/hip-hop album, it contained his first platinum single and second Top Ten R&B/hip-hop hit, the rollicking "Green Light," featuring
André 3000 amid flashy synthesizers in place of
Legend's expected piano. A few months afterward,
Legend won another Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, this time for his work on
Al Green's "Stay with Me (By the Sea)."
Legend started the following decade with another change of course while sticking to his biennial studio LP schedule.
Wake Up!, on which he was backed by
the Roots, was released in September 2010 with covers of still-relevant, socially aware songs like
Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "Wake Up Everybody" and
Donny Hathaway's "Little Ghetto Boy." The following February, it won the Grammy for Best R&B Album, and its cover of
Mike James Kirkland's obscure "Hang On in There" won for Best Traditional R&B Performance. At the same ceremony,
Legend also won as the co-writer of
Estelle's "Shine," awarded Best R&B Song.
Estelle had been the first artist to sign with
Legend's Homeschool Records, his short-lived boutique label distributed by Atlantic.
Following a tour with
Sade and the making of "Tonight (Best You Ever Had)," a platinum addition to the soundtrack of Think Like a Man,
Legend completed
Love in the Future, for which he continued to write and produce with
Kanye West and
Dave Tozer, and involved a large supporting crew that included
Q-Tip,
Ali Shaheed Muhammad,
Hit-Boy, and
Rick Ross. Released in September 2013,
Love in the Future became his fifth consecutive release to peak within the Top Ten of the Billboard 200. The album also generated
Legend's first number one pop hit, "All of Me" -- another piano/voice-only ballad -- which peaked in May 2014 but sold so well that it was among the five best-selling singles of the year, certified eight-times platinum. Near the end of the year, he released the single "Glory." Written and recorded with
Common for the soundtrack of the Ava DuVernay-directed film Selma, the song won the Academy Award early in 2015 for Best Original Song, and in early 2016 won a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Between those accolades,
Legend scored his biggest smash as a featured artist with "Like I'm Gonna Lose You," a multi-platinum, number eight pop hit headlined by
Meghan Trainor.
Legend devoted more time to television and film. He co-founded Get Lifted Film Co., which in 2016 was behind the biographical drama Southside with You and the dramatic series Underground. The former featured music from
Legend, while the latter involved him as executive producer. Furthermore, he co-starred in the enormously successful musical
La La Land. Capping off a particularly busy 2016, he delivered his fifth studio album,
Darkness and Light, that December. Unlike the four previous full-lengths, its production was handled almost entirely by one person,
Blake Mills, whose shaping of
Alabama Shakes'
Sound & Color inspired
Legend to reach out.
Legend received songwriting support from
Mills and the likes of
John Ryan and
Will Oldham, as well as
Chance the Rapper,
Miguel, and
Alabama Shakes'
Brittany Howard, who also made vocal contributions. A synthesis of gospel, folk, R&B, and adult pop, it entered the Billboard 200 at number 14 and on the R&B/hip-hop chart peaked at number five, promoted by the gold-certified, number 23 pop hit "Love Me Now."
Continuing with work related to the stage,
Legend co-produced a Broadway revival of August Wilson's Jitney, which in 2017 won a Tony for Best Revival of a Play. He also produced and starred in Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. Broadcast in April 2018, it went on to win a Primetime Emmy in the category of Outstanding Variety Special (Live), which made
Legend among the first 15 -- and the first African-American -- to win at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. His first holiday album, the
Raphael Saadiq-produced
A Legendary Christmas, followed in October 2018 and picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. The singer also nabbed a second Grammy nod for Best Rap/Sung Performance for his contribution to the
DJ Khaled track "Higher." In June 2020, shortly after he completed his third season as a coach on The Voice,
Legend issued
Bigger Love, a feel-good set with
Charlie Puth,
Anderson .Paak, and
Rapsody among his first-time collaborators. The following year he contributed a song, "Crowd Go Crazy," to the
Space Jam: A New Legacy soundtrack. Early 2022 saw the release of "Tomorrow" a collaborative single with
Nas and producer
Florian Picasso.~ Andy Kellman