John Legend, Bio, Career, Dating Life, Age
Get to know the award-winning singer songwriter
John Legend is the Grammy and an Academy Award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, actor and philanthropist. Read on to find out more about the superstar.
Get to know singer-songwriter John Legend
What is John Legend known for?
The R&B, soul and pop star is known for his Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit single, All of Me, and his albums Get Lifted and Love in the Future.
What is John Legend’s real name?
John Legend’s real name is John Roger Stephens.
How old is John Legend? Age
As of December 2021, Legend is 44 years old.
Where was he born?
Legend was born on December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio, U.S.A.
When is John Legend’s birthday?
His birthday is on December 28.
What is his star sign?
His zodiac sign is Capricorn; his birthstone is Turquoise.
How tall is John Legend?
Legend’s build is athletic, height is 5 ft 9 in or 175 cm.
How much does he weigh?
He weighs 158 lbs or 71 kg.
What color is his hair, eyes?
His hair color is black and his eyes are dark brown.
What is John Legend’s ethnicity?
Legend is African American with European and Native American ancestry.
Who discovered John Legend?
Legend was discovered by Kanye West.
Video: John Legend’s hit song All of Me
What is John Legend’s net worth?
John Legend’s net worth is estimated to have reached an astonishing total of $45 million dollars, which he amassed through his successful singing career.
Family
Who are John Legend’s parents?
Roger’s father Ronald Stephens was a factory worker and a national guardsman. His mother Phyllis Stephens was a seamstress.
Who are his siblings?
His siblings include Vaughn Anthony and Ronald Stephens II (both are his younger brothers).
John Legend love life and relationships
Who did Legend date in the past?
Dating history
Jessica White (2005)
John dated American model Jessica White for a brief period.
Wafah Dufour (2006)
In 2006, John saw the Swiss artist Wafah Dufour. They were together for a brief period prior to them parting ways.
Danielle Abreu (2006)
John and Danielle Abreu, the Brazilian model, first met in 2006. They were together for some months before they split up.
Tayo Otiti (2006)
In 2006, John also dated Tayo Otiti, the Nigerian model.
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Who is John Legend married to?
John met his wife, the Thai-Norwegian model Chrissy Teigen, on the set of his song Stereo in 2008.
Chrissy described her first meeting with Legend to Cosmopolitan in 2014, “I walked into John’s dressing room to meet him, and he was ironing in his underwear. I said, ‘You do your own ironing!?’ He said, ‘Of course I do.’ I gave him a hug.”
The couple started dating thereafter and eventually married on September 14, 2013.
Does John Legend have children?
John and Chrissy’s two children are named Luna Simone Stephens and Miles Theodore Stephens.
Background
Education
Legend attended Springfield North High School in Springfield, OH. After graduating, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania where he studied English with a focus on African American literature.
Early Life
Legend is one of the four kids of Phyllis Elaine (Lloyd), a needleworker, and Ronald Lamar Stephens, a warehouse laborer at International Harvester.
Musical family
His father was a drummer and his mother sang and coordinated the church choir. Legend’s grandmother was the church instrumentalist.
At the age of four, Legend sang in his church choir. He started playing the piano at age seven.
Childhood
In 2004, Legend talked about his parents’ separation which lasted for 12 years before they reconciled.
His mother homeschooled Legend. Thanks to his academic ability, he skipped two grades. At the age of 12, Legend went to Springfield North High School, where he graduated as the best of his class upon graduation.
College
Legend received an admission offer from Harvard University and scholarship offers from Georgetown University and Morehouse College. Instead, he chose to attend the University of Pennsylvania.
During college, Legend worked as the president and music director of a co-ed jazz and pop a cappella group called The Counterparts.
His lead vocals on the group’s record of Joan Osborne’s “One of Us” (composed by Eric Bazilian of The Hooters) got significant recognition, landing the tune on the tracklist of 1998 Best of Collegiate a Cappella compilation CD.
Legend was also a part of the reputable senior societies Sphinx Senior Society and Onyx Senior Honor Society while an undergrad at Penn.
During college, Legend was presented to Lauryn Hill by a companion. Hill enlisted him to play piano on “Everything Is Everything”, a melody from her collection The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
He finished with a bachelor’s diploma, magna cum laude, in 1999.
Personal Trainer
John Legend’s personal trainer is Malcolm Martin. In one meeting, Legend said that for his cardio sessions, he does boxing, running, and rope jumping, and for strength, he lifts weights. This helps in his muscle building. He is on a low carb diet, consisting of vegetables and lean proteins.
Video: Love Me Now
Musical career
What are John Legend’s most famous songs?
- Ordinary People
- Glory
- Used to Love U
- All of Me
- You & I (Nobody in the World)
- Tonight (Best You Ever Had)
- Save Room
- Stereo
Other John Legend songs include Beauty and the Beast, Love Me Now, Preach, Who Did That to You?, Green Light, Bring Me Love, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, P.D.A., This Time, A Good Night, Bridge Over Troubled Water, So High, Written In The Stars, Everybody Knows, What Christmas Means to Me, Start a Fire, Made to Love, Who Do We Think We Are, Under the Stars, Waiting for Christmas, Stay with You, Wake Up Everybody, What You Do to Me, and I Love, You Love.
John Legend tours
His tours include Get Lifted Tour, Once Again Tour, Evolver Tour, Love in The Future World Tour, and Darkness and Light World Tour.
Awards and Nominations
John Legend is an American soul artist, lyricist, and piano player. In 2005, Legend got fifteen designations and won two, counting Best R&B Act at the MOBO Awards and Best New Artist at the Black Entertainment Tv Awards (Bet Awards). In 2006, Legend got ten designations and won five, counting Best R&B Album for Get Lifted, Best R&B Male Vocal Performance for “Stay with You”, Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards, Best R&B/Soul Single Male for “Ordinary People” at the Soul Train Music Awards, st R&B/Soul Album Male for Get Lifted.
In 2007, Legend got six assignments and won three, counting Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for “Heaven” at the Grammy Awards; Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group for “Family Affair”, Best R&B/Soul Single Male for “Save Room” at the Soul Train Music Awards. Within the year 2017, Legend was the receiver of Smithsonian Magazine’s American Ingenuity Award for Performing Arts. In 2018 he became the first Black man to get an EGOT alongside his Emmy victory for “Jesus Christ Superstar.” In total, Legend has been nominated 70 and has won 25 awards.
John Legend albums
Discography
His albums include Get Lifted, Once Again, Evolver, Love In The Future, Darkness, And Light, A Legendary Christmas, Wake Up!, Live at Jimmy’s Uptown, Live at SOB’s, Solo Sessions Vol. 1: Live at the Knitting Factory, John Legend: Live from Philadelphia, John Legend: Live at the House of Blues, John Legend: Live from Philadelphia, Connect Sets, Sounds of the Season, iTunes Live from SoHo, “Selfish”, “Grammy Family”, “Finally”, “Stay with Me (By the Sea)”, “Magnificent”, “Whatever You Want”, “Heartbreaker”,
“Move on Up”, “Don’t Give Up”, “Fall in Love”, “Getting Nowhere”, “Reminiscing”, “Dance the Pain Away”, “Don’t Say Goodbye”, “Like I’m Gonna Lose You”, “Lay Me Down”, “Listen”, “Summer Nights”, “Higher”, “Slow Dance”, “Each Day Gets Better”, “Good Morning”, “It’s Over”, “Decision”, “Free Mason”, “Shine”, “So Special”, “Rich Forever”, “Listen”, “One Man Can Change the World”, “Start a Fire”, “One Woman Man”, “What Christmas Means to Me”, “Bring Me Love”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, “Swing by My Way”, “Ride Ride”…
More album titles
“Summer Kiss”, “Me Against the Music”, “Hey Girl”, “Freedom”, “U Know”, “So Soulful”, “Getting Out the Game”, “And You Say”, “Around My Way”, “Faithful”, “They Say”, “Grown Man Pt. 2”, “I’ve Been Waiting on You”, “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”, “Like That”, “Love Won’t Let Me Wait”, “Touch”, “Hello, It’s Me”, “Please Don’t Stop”, “High Road”, “Home”, “Please Baby Don’t”, “Sing You Sinners”, “Do U Wanna Ride”, “King & Queen”, “Tōkage”, “Feel This Way”, “Ghetto Rich”, “Eternity Intro”, “Eternity”, “Celebrate”, “Come Over”, “You Are”, “Slide Show”, “Decision”, “Entreolhares (The Way You Look at Me)”, “Let’s Stop Playin'”, “Victory”, “No Importa”,
“The Fire”, “Doing It Again”, “Free Mason”, “Blame Game”, “Christian Dior Denim Flow”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Never Forget You”, “Eyez Closed”, “Memories (Part II)”, “So Special”, “The Believer”, “Karma”, “L.O.V.E.”, “Ghetto Dreams”, “Sin City”, “Bliss”, “Maybach Curtains”, “Who Did That to You?”, “Why Do I Even Go Home?”, “Never Surrender”, “Bridges”, “What Kind of Fool”, “One Man Can Change The World”, “Run Run Run”, “Most High”, “Free Enterprise”, “Happy Birthday”, “Leave It to the Sky”, “Rain”, “Holiday”, “I’ll Be Gentle”, and “The Real M.V.P.”.
Movies
His films include Sesame Street: Elmo Loves You!, Soul Men, The Savoy King: Chick Webb & the Music That Changed America, Southside with You, La La Land, Crow: The Legend, Between Two Ferns: The Movie, and Jingle Jangle.
TV Shows
Legend has been seen in many TV series including Sesame Street, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Las Vegas, A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All, The People Speak, Dancing with the Stars, Royal Pains, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Hollywood Game Night, Lip Sync Battle, Underground, The Nightly Show with Gordon Ramsay, Master of None, Carpool Karaoke: The Series, Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, A Legendary Christmas with John and Chrissy, The Voice, Songland, Ask the StoryBots, Celebrity Family Feud, and The Simpsons.
John Legend social media
Instagram: @johnlegend
Twitter: @johnlegend
Facebook: @johnlegend
Website: johnlegend.com
John Legend quotes
I’m craving more soul, I’m craving more truth, I’m craving more socially – just people that are aware of what’s going on in the world.
My head’s underwater, but I’m breathing fine.
On the way, we shed some tears. Every day we sacrifice. So we can be standing here. Oh, what a hell of a life.
My fried chicken is straightforward. I pan-fry it in a skillet.
I was a busy kid in high school — a little bit of an overachiever, I guess. Prom king was kind of silly, but the rest of the stuff was important to me.
On fashion
My style is pretty clean, classic, and elegant, with some elements to make it a little funkier. If you see me on a typical day, I’m usually in a T-shirt and jeans, maybe with some cool sneakers, but I’m pretty basic.
Shoes are essential, of course. I love my Lanvin sneakers — they go with a lot of things. And then I think a nice bag is excellent, so you carry your computer or whatever else in style. I’ve been taking a Tom Ford backpack lately.
John Legend quotes on music
To have the chance to see your music be elevated and to have an almost universally positive response to that music makes me feel more confident and inspired, and that’s fun.
Anybody under the age of forty knows hip-hop, gospel, and R&B pretty well, and it’s all a part of what we consider to be ‘black music’. There is a natural synergy between the three.
I played classical as a kid.
Sometimes there’s that perfect moment when the crowd, the music, the energy of the room come together in a way that brings me to tears.
I always felt that rap didn’t cause crime; it just reflected it.
The best training is to play by ear: trial by fire.
On other artists
(Frank Ocean) You talk to some people in this business, and you get the sense that they’re very focused on the radio: what will be a hit or won’t be a hit. You never get that from Frank. The focus is on creating something beautiful, that’s great art…I think his fearlessness and his artistic freedom will define Frank’s career.
(Stevie Wonder) I sang ‘All Of Me’ at the wedding. I sang ‘Stay With You’ from my first album. And then Stevie Wonder came up and sang ‘Ribbon In the Sky.’ It was impromptu… It was cool… He’s always been a friend and a mentor to me.
John Legend quotes on his career
I have a structured songwriting process; I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last. Some people start with the lyrics first because they know what they want to talk about, and they just write a whole bunch of lyrical ideas, but for me, the music tells me what to talk about.
The ride for me has been good so far. I am blessed because I enjoy doing what I am doing.
I think I’m happier, not just because of winning Grammys and selling records, but because it’s fulfilling to have all these things happen with something you love to do.
It’s really about making the best music you can make. It’s really about working hard.
I’m trying to be me and embrace all the parts of me that have grown up, listened to more music, and soaked up more influences.
I want to move people.
On women’s rights and girl power
All men should be feminists. If men care about women’s rights, the world will be a better place. We are better off when women are empowered – it leads to a better society.
I am a feminist. Women are discriminated against in so many ways, and they make up half the population.
John Legend quotes on philanthropy
The more I get, the more I must do.
When you see people that are impoverished and people who are dealt an unfair hand, then if we have the power to help them, we should try to do that.
The future started yesterday, and we’re already late.
When we think about equality and freedom and justice, we know we’ve got more work to do, and we’re going to do that work. We want to do that work, and we hope that our song is an inspiration for those who want to do that work as well.
We have a severe problem with incarceration in this country. It’s destroying families, it’s devastating communities, and we’re the most incarcerated country in the world. When you look deeper and look at the reasons we got to this place, we as a society made some choices politically and legislatively, culturally to deal with poverty, deal with mental illness in a certain way, and that way usually involves using incarceration.
On politics
When people are marching with our song, we want to tell you that we are with you, we see you, we love you and march on.
We wrote this song for a film that was based on events that were 50 years ago. But we say that Selma is now because the struggle for justice is right now.
As a politician, you have to deal with someone wanting you to fail every day. I think I prefer being in a situation where generally people are rooting for me, and if they aren’t rooting for me, they aren’t out there to see my downfall. I respect the people who have the stomach for it.
There’s nothing that can shock me anymore. Still, at this point, Trump’s made it very clear how his temperament is, how his personality is, what his level of intellectual depth is when it comes to policy. He’s made it abundantly clear that he’s utterly unqualified to be president – no matter what your political views are.
John Legend words of wisdom
The soul is about authenticity. The soul is about finding the things in your life that are real and pure.
Experience is a great teacher.
What great art can do is develop empathy in people so they can see other people’s perspectives.
My thoughts are stars; I can’t fathom into constellations.
It’s not wrong to be afraid, but you have to fight through the fear to overcome it.
As a nation — and as a world — we need more truth.
What’s next for John Legend? Upcoming album
Legend released A Legendary Christmas, a deluxe version of his Christmas album on November 8, 2019.
— Claire Evans
Claire writes about pop culture, entertainment, personalities, and movies.
Etcetera
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