John Legend: John-Roger Stephens, better known by his stage name, John Legend, is a musician, activist, actor, and record producer from Ohio, United States.
Legend has collaborated with well-established musicians and is a member of Kanye West’s GOOD Music record label. John’s own track “All of Me” reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100, making him famous.
Primitive Years
John-Roger Stephens entered the world on December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio. Phyllis and Ronald have four children, including him. His mother was the choir director at their church and a dressmaker. His dad was a percussionist and he worked at the International Harvester plant where he worked. His grandmother played the organ at the local church. At the age of four, John was already singing in the church choir. His education consisted entirely of home lessons. When he was seven years old, he started taking piano lessons. Due to his intelligence, Legend was able to go ahead in school by two classes.
At the age of 12, he enrolled at Springfield North High School, from which he would graduate at the age of 16 as the class valedictorian. There are four universities that have offered Legend admission: Harvard, Morehouse, Penn, and Georgetown. A University of Pennsylvania education was in his future.
While attending Penn, Legend was the musical director of the co-ed jazz and pop a cappella group The Counterparts. The group’s rendition of “One of Us,” a song by Joan Osbourne, was included on 1988 Best of Collegiate a Cappella compilation CD. After meeting in college, Lauryn Hill engaged John Legend to play piano on her song “Everything Is Everything,” which appears on her classic album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
In 1999, Legend received a bachelor of arts in African-American literature from the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors and the highest possible grade point average.
Starting Out In Their Professions
After graduating from college, Legend began a career as a management consultant and began composing, producing, and recording his own music. He sold copies of his self-titled demo and “Live at Jimmy’s Uptown” during live performances in 2000 and 2001, respectively. He promptly started submitting his demo to record companies. In 2001, Legend met Kanye West, a promising newcomer to the hip-hop scene. West enlisted Legend to provide vocals for a number of song hooks. The rapper West also signed Legend to his label.
When deciding on a moniker for himself, Legend was inspired by a suggestion made by poet and composer J Ivy. According to Ivy, Legend’s music has an “old school” vibe, akin to that of the Legends themselves. Then he started calling John Legend. West did the same thing. One day, Legend decided to take the name for himself.
Success
Get Lifted, John Legend’s first album was released in December 2004 under Kanye West’s GOOD Music label. The album entered the charts in the top ten. In 2006, “Get Lifted” took home the Grammy for Best R&B Album. In addition to those two nominations, Legend was also up for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best New Artist. From this album, four singles were recorded and released. In 2005, Legend co-wrote “I Want You” by Janet Jackson, which was nominated for a Grammy. Over the following several years, Legend guested on albums by a wide variety of artists, including Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, the Black Eyed Peas, and Stephen Colbert.
Before his untimely demise, Legend had also been collaborating with Michael Jackson on a new album. A single song has been completed before Jackson’s death.
Ahead of an impending decision by the Supreme Court on the fate of Roe vs. Wade, I penned an op-ed in @USATODAY where I discuss the importance of electing reform-minded prosecutors to protect our basic rights and fight oppressive laws. https://t.co/eagqrIPxKF
— John Legend (@johnlegend) June 20, 2022
Legend performed in the pregame shows for both Super Bowl XL in Detroit, Michigan, and the NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas in February 2006. Singer John Legend sang “It Feels Good When You Sing a Song” with Hoots the Owl on “Sesame Street” in the summer of 2006.
The fall of 2006 saw the release of “Once Again,” Legend’s second album. In addition to its top spot on the R&B/Hip-Hop album chart debut, the album also reached #3 overall. The male R&B vocal performance category at the Grammys was named after him because of his hit song “Heaven.” One of his Grammys was for his work on the hit song “Family Affair” with other artists.
His third studio album, titled “Evolver,” was out in the fall of 2008. Green Light,” by Outkast featuring Andre 3000, is a single. When compared to his previous chart-topper, “Ordinary People,” this song performed very well.
When Legend and the Roots got together in 2010, they came out with the album Wake Up! Best R&B Song for “Shine,” Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for “Hang On in There,” and Best R&B Album were the three Grammys that Legend took home in 2011.
The album “Love in the Future,” released by Legend in 2013, peaked at No. 2 in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The album’s third song, “All of Me,” achieved massive success throughout the world. This song is for his wife, Chrissy Teigen. He gave a live rendition of the song during the 56th Grammy Awards. ‘All of Me’ was the third best-selling single in both the United States and the United Kingdom in 2014.
His 2016 CD “Darkness and Light” explored the contrast between the two. The album “A Legendary Christmas” came out in 2018. On May 21, 2019, Legend and his artist Maelyn Jarmon won “The Voice” as a coach. When the Quarantines came around in 2020, Legend performed a special performance for them. When Joe Biden was running for president in 2020, John Legend and Andra Day sang “Greatest Love of All” at a benefit concert.
John Legend Net Worth
John Legend is an American musician who also works in film and television and does charity work. John Legend has an estimated net worth of $100 million at the time of this writing. That’s how much he and his wife of five years, supermodel Chrissy Teigen, are worth together. Chrissy has made at least $10 million years since 2018, mostly from modeling, sponsorships, and television ventures; nonetheless, John is still the primary source of the couple’s fortune.
Late night #Honey. Song is out now feat. @munilong 🍯🍯🍯🍯 pic.twitter.com/4K6vzThjH2
— John Legend (@johnlegend) June 17, 2022
Personal Life And Relationship
Chrissy Teigen was featured in John Legend’s music video for the song “Stereo” in 2006. They started dating in December 2011 and got engaged in January 2012. They tied the knot on September 14, 2013, at Villa Pizzo in Como, Italy. This couple has two children: a girl, Luna, born in April 2016, and a boy, Miles, born in May 2018. Both of the kids were born thanks to IVF.
Earlier this year, in November 2019, People magazine called Legend their sexiest man alive.
In the summer of 2020, while a guest on Dax Shepherd’s podcast “Armchair Expert,” Legend fessed up to a long history of infidelity, particularly in his twenties. Having been two years younger than his high school and college peers, Legend lamented that he did not get much interest from female classmates. When he finally did, he behaved recklessly and enjoyed it. Then he met Chrissy Teigen, he said, and everything changed. Especially…the other sh*t is the 10s and 30s, so better be talking the tens, fool,” his Twitter-savvy wife said. When Legend was 28 years old, he met Teigen.
After civil rights leader John Lewis died away in July 2020, several famous people, including John Legend, sent tributes to him on social media. His tweets read: “Thank you for fighting for what is right, John Lewis. Thank you for caring so much about our freedom that you were willing to sacrifice your own. Let us rededicate ourselves to continuing his work of service as we grieve and celebrate his amazing life.”
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Commercial Property
Near their present Beverly Hills mansion, which they acquired for $14.1 million in 2016, Legend and Teigen purchased a $5.1 million modern contemporary property in West Hollywood in April 2020. Two New York City penthouses are part of their property holdings. The first was purchased in May of 2018 for little over $9 million, while the second was purchased in April 2019 for $8 million.
A duplex residence in New York City owned by John and Chrissy was listed for $18 million in January 2022. There were once two flats on the site. In 2018, John and Chrissy bought their first apartment, and in 2020, they will buy their second. They dropped $16.70 million on the two homes.