John Legend: The elegant gentleman behind modern love songs

John Roger Stephens, also known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter and actor. To date, he has won many academic awards in music as well as had the opportunity to collaborate with many famous artists.

Some of the most prominent works in the male singer’s vast musical legacy include Love Me Now, All of Me or Like I’m Gonna Lose You collaborating with Meghan Trainor.

Besides his top music career, the male singer is also loved by the public thanks to his gentle, warm and equally strong personality.

The teenager has the desire to make black history

John Legend was born on December 28, 1978 in Springfield, Ohio, USA. Although he was born and raised in a family without a musical tradition, he has had a passion for musical instruments since childhood.

His first music teacher was his mother, who taught him his first musical notes when John Legend was just four years old. During his childhood, his passion for music was also gradually nurtured through his participation in the church choir in his hometown.

During a period when racism in the US and Europe was extremely fierce, in the face of constant riots in his home country, John Legend had a great desire to “become a person of color”. Influential”.

In particular, that desire is clearly expressed in the entry to the essay contest aimed at people of color organized by McDonalds with the topic given as “How will you make black history?” ” of male singer.

In his entry, John Legend expressed his dream of becoming a famous musician so he can stand up to fight for equal rights and inspire the black community to have enough courage to do things. extraordinary.

Through a profound and determined perspective, those writings quickly spread across forums and became a great source of motivation to help the male singer carry out his great mission in the future.

John Legend accurately predicted his music career twenty years ago

Not only does John Legend show a strong passion for music, he also has an artistic soul, specifically literature.

After graduating as salutatorian from North High School, despite excellently receiving scholarships from many prestigious universities such as Harvard, Georgetown or Morehouse, he chose to study in Pennsylvania, one of nine universities. oldest school in America.

Here, John Legend studied English Literature, specializing in studying the literature of the generation of African-American writers. During his time in the classroom, he founded the Jazz and A Cappella Counterparts group and took on the role of lead singer.

The group’s song One of Us received much praise and was selected to be included in the list of the best A Cappella CDs of 1998.

Thanks to his outstanding performance, he was introduced to the famous female rapper Lauryn Hill by an acquaintance at that time and she trusted her to take charge of producing the background music for the song “Everything is Everything” on the album. the latest, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

This event is considered a turning point that gave John Legend the opportunity to approach the music industry and is also a premise for the male singer’s brilliant future developments.

The early days of starting the stage name John Legend

After graduating from college in 1999, John Legend accepted a job offer at Boston Consulting Group as a business consultant. Although he is extremely busy with his current job, he still spends time producing and recording his self-composed songs.

In 2000, he posted his songs on social networks and received recognition from a certain group of fans.

These recordings also helped the male singer receive a few invitations to perform and at the same time became the driving force that helped him gain more confidence in his composing ability.

When he received a certain amount of attention from the audience, he decided to bring his compositions to “knock on the doors” of major record labels, but what he received in return were only shakes of the head.

Not long after, he was introduced by a friend and connected with Kanye West, a male rapper with promising talent at that time. Kanye hired him to sing backup vocals on some iconic songs like Jesus Walks or Heaven.

It was also from here that he met and made a strong impression on poet J.Ivy, who lovingly gave him the name John Legend.

“I listened to his music and it made me nostalgic for the music that stuck with me in my youth. He really has the same style as the music legends of those days. That’s why I will call you John Legend.” – J.Ivy message to John Legend.

After J.Ivy’s statement, John Legend’s reputation spread more and more, even Kanye West called him by this new stage name. This is also a milestone marking a new journey, making the male musician born in 1978 become a legend in his own time.

A top artistic career with countless prestigious awards

In December 2004, three years after the opportunity to contribute to Kanye West’s work, John Legend continued to collaborate on production with the male rapper along with two other friends, Dave Tozer and will.i.am, on his debut album Get Lifted.

At the time of release, this product reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 200 Chart with 116 thousand physical copies sold in the US. This number later reached more than 540 thousand copies and brought John Legend the first gold certification from the RIIA in his career.

In foreign markets, the album topped the Norwegian music chart and reached the top 10 in the Netherlands and Sweden. The physical version of the album also continues to be sold with more than 850 thousand copies sold worldwide.

Although this is the first product in his career, “Get Lifted” has brought John Legend countless prestigious awards, notably the record “treble” at the 2004 Grammy annual awards ceremony.

John Legend in Lifted

The male singer won all three categories: Best R&B Album, Best New Artist and Best R&B Performance.

In addition, the singles released in this album also continued to bring John Legend commercial and professional success.

If Used to Love U “made waves” on the UK charts, Ordinary People brought the male singer a Grammy Award and ranked 24th on the Billboard music chart.

Soon after, he co-wrote the song I Want You with female singer Janet Jackson, the song received platinum certification and was also nominated at the 47th Grammy Awards.

During this time, John Legend also began to actively work as a musician, contributing to the success of a series of songs by many famous artists such as Jay Z, Mary J. Blige, The Black Eyed Peas, Stephen Colbert, Rich Boy, Chemistry or Fergie.

The most typical of which is his collaboration with Hoots the Owl through the song “It Feels Good When You Sing a Song”.

In addition, the male singer also revealed that he also had the opportunity to work with pop music legend Michael Jackson on a studio album, but this music product was not officially released.

Successful in penning hit songs, the name John Legend is increasingly known and loved by music lovers around the world. In October 2006, he returned to the stage through his second studio production titled Once Again.

Rookie John Legend got off to an impressive start at the Grammys

Unexpectedly, the album continued to bring about a series of impressive achievements when “closing” at number three on the Billboard chart and leading the list of the most impressive R&B songs.

Once Again also earned him platinum certification from the RIIA and gold certification in countries such as Italy, the Netherlands and the UK.

In particular, the song “Heaven” from this album helped the male artist win the award for Best R&B Performance in the Male Vocalist category at the Grammy Awards, marking the fourth time John Legend touched the “trumpet”. this prestigious “gold”.

In 2008, John Legend was honored to be invited to contribute vocals to Yes We Can, a song written for Former US President Barack Obama. Also this year, he continued to release his third studio album titled Evolver.

It can be said that this product marked a notable change in musical style for the male artist when he chose to try his hand at a completely new genre, with a vibrant Dance Pop feel.

Green Light is the most notable song on the album Evolver

Sharing about this change, John Legend hopes his career will be built with many different experiences in the hope that people will not “frame” him with a specific image.

Green Light continued John Legend’s series of impressive musical achievements by once again adding his name to the Grammy nominations.

In 2009, John Legend was honored to appear in the documentary film The People Speak, a film adaptation based on the book A People’s History of the United States about American traditions through musical performances. .

Also in this year, he collaborated with the band The Roots to record the album called Wake Up!, in which the song “Wake Up Everybody” featured female singer Melanie Fiona and male rapper Common.

Wake Up! He was highly appreciated professionally when he continued to bring John Legend’s name to the Grammy nomination list and win.

Also this year, the male singer took home three prestigious Grammy awards including Best R&B Song for the song “Shine”, Best R&B Album thanks to the album in collaboration with the group The Roots, and finally, Best R&B Album for the album The Roots. best traditional R&B performance for Hang On in There.

In March 2011, John Legend and The Roots continued to be named with two awards at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one for Outstanding Album (Wake Up!) and one for The best combination.

The male singer and The Roots received the Grammy award

After his achievements, he continued to release his fourth studio album titled Love in the Future. This product immediately took the fourth position on the Billboard Hot 200 Chart with 68 thousand copies sold in the first week alone.

The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks and reached the Top 6 national music charts and Top 10 in many other countries, becoming one of the best-selling digital singles. best of all time.

This landmark product brought John Legend’s name to a global scale. From here, audiences began to know him more for his gentle, quiet ballad music.

In 2015, John Legend contributed vocals to Meghan Trainor’s Like I’m Gonna Lose You. This deep, emotional love song continues to be loved by many audiences as well as highly appreciated by experts.

The sweet combination of John Legend and Meghan Trainor in Like I’m Gonna Lose You

It can be said that 2015 was an extremely productive year for John Legend when the male singer continuously received invitations to collaborate from a number of famous artists such as Kelly Clarkson with the song “Run Run Run” or famous DJ David Guetta with Listen.

Also this year, John Jegend participated in performing the song America the Beautiful during the opening ceremony of Super Bowl XLIX. The male singer’s eye-catching performance at this tournament truly left lasting impressions in the hearts of fans.

2017 continued to mark his successful collaboration with young singer Ariana Grande in the song Beauty and the Beast in the Disney movie of the same name.

In addition, he also participated in producing, voicing and singing the soundtrack for the animated film Crow: The Legend. This work has won thirteen different film festivals, including the Los Angeles Film Festival where the film premiered in North America in 2018.

In addition, it won the Best Virtual Reality Animated Film award at the 2018 Raindance Film Festival as well as a nomination for Best Virtual Reality Cinema Project at the 46th Annual Annie Awards.
He also voiced the hit animated film Crow: The Legend

After this event, John Legend was “chosen by Google” to be one of six voices for his virtual assistant.

After seventeen years of pursuing art, John Legend has reaped resounding achievements along with a collection of prestigious awards.

At the age of forty, he reached the pinnacles of his career as an artist and at the same time his reputation as a male artist spread worldwide.

At the same time, the dream of becoming an influential black person mentioned in the essay 25 years ago has come true.

The powerful coach of John Legend’s team at The Voice America

At the end of 2018, producers of The Voice America officially announced that John Legend would join the quartet of coaches along with Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, and Kelly Clarkson in the sixteenth season of the hit TV show.

Although it was his first try as a coach, what John Legend showed was extremely convincing.

John Legend is one piece of the powerhouse quartet of The Voice season sixteen

Possessing a calm, gentle demeanor and, above all, an extremely skillful ability to persuade contestants, he has become the “number one competitor” of the remaining coaches when it comes to bringing back “pieces of the puzzle.” Extremely potential for our team.

The first contestant that John Legend convinced to join the team was also the champion of The Voice America that year, Maelyn Jarmon.

This unexpected success made him the first coach to win in his first hot seat since Adam Levine and Javier Colon won the throne in the first season.

John Legend and his student Maelyn Jarmon were crowned The Voice season 16

After a quality performance as a coach, John Legend continued to be selected by the producers of The Voice to become one of the four pieces of the show’s power quartet in the next season.

Although there were no winning contestants like last season, the male coach-led team members also successfully entered the final night. After two successful seasons at The Voice, John Legend is fondly called his team “Legend”.
AHe has often been “chosen for gold” by The Voice in recent seasons

After five seasons together, John Legend has increasingly proven himself to be a dedicated, capable and desirable coach at The Voice. The position of the hot seat with John Legend’s name written on it also became a familiar image to the show’s audience.

Charming and elegant gentleman from music to real life

In 2019, People magazine voted John Legend as the Sexiest Man on the Planet and shared the criteria for choosing for this title.

In an article about John Legend, two journalists Melody Chiu and Janine Rubenstein shared that the image the male singer has built is considered extremely impressive, from major awards in each music project to records. are set up consecutively.

Besides, one of the key criteria that made People magazine decide to honor John Legend with this title is the deep affection he has for his small family.

The male singer once made fans excited when he dedicated the entire album Bigger Love to his woman. In addition, John Legend also shared with the press that his love for family is an endless source of inspiration for his lyrical compositions.

John Legend was chosen as the Sexiest Man of 2019

John Legend’s characteristic elegance and grace is not only expressed through the words in the music he writes, but also through his daily actions. These are the things that have helped the male artist become more impressive in the eyes of the press and fans.

Possessing such a brilliant music career, John Legend has never had a “star attitude”. On the contrary, he always carries himself with a humble, courteous demeanor along with a tolerant heart towards those around him.

In an interview with People, John Legend shared that these qualities are thanks to his father, who has always been an example for him to follow and led him to his current successes.

“My father is the one who taught me how to treat people around me. He always taught me with his good actions. He always displayed an admirable grace and decency.”

Indeed, John Legend is an outstanding image for his gentleness, gentleness, but still no less charm from music to real life.

The story of his journey to building a music career also inspires young people with big dreams and aspirations to become a positive influence on their community.