Artists & Bands

John Legend tunes

Video blocked due to privacy settings

[rcb-consent type=”change” tag=”link” text=”Change privacy settings”]

A world-class pianist, singer, songwriter, producer, and actor!

Mr. Legend got his first break playing piano behind Lauryn Hill on her smash hit Everything Is Everything (1998).

He also made uncredited appearances on Jay-Z and Alicia Keys recordings which made him a name in the industry.

Kanye West signed him and released his debut Get Lifted in 2004. This album contained the piano ballad Ordinary People, which as a single, ended up selling over 2.5 million copies.

John had other success during these first years, most notably with So High from the debut album but also Green Light (2008), which he co-wrote with Andre 3000 (the man behind Hey Ya!)

2008 was a productive and successful year for John as it also saw the release of American Boy, a song he wrote with Estelle and Kanye West, notably, he appeared in the music video, playing the American Boy.

In 2010, John Legend released Wake Up! This was a collaboration with The Roots, here you find my favourite John Legend track, the seriously funky Compared To What.

In 2013, he returned to his piano-playing ballad formula that worked so well with Ordinary People as he released All Of Me (not the same as the Sinatra jazz standard!). This would become his greatest success to date as the song went #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K., as well as the Top 5 worldwide.

You’d think John would by now have realized that his place in the world was to stick to what he clearly does best and churn out more piano ballads, but no!

Instead, he writes a song for the film Selma, produces Jitney for Broadway and plays Jesus on TV in an adaptation of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.

All this put together made John Legend the first black man to receive the EGOT, that’s an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.

Clearly, John had his intentions set on living up to his name, not just playing the piano!