The Legend of R&B: John's Brilliant Career

He is indeed, what his last name proves to be in the American and worldwide musical scene; he is John Legend, Grammy winner, songwriter, pianist and of course, an excellent R&B singer. His gifted career started very early in his life. When he was four years old, he played the piano and sang in the church’s choir.

Born in Springfield, Ohio, on December 28, 1978, John Legend attended Springfield North High School and after finishing it, he went to University of Pennsylvania. He majored in English, emphasizing on the African American Literature and Culture.

His musical career started when he performed as an independent artist in several nightclub circuits in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. Devon Harris, his roommate at Penn, introduced him to his cousin, the hip-hop artist Kanye West, and started to work together in the label G.O.O.D. Music.

As an interesting fact, he has been nominated nine times, and out of those nine, John Legend has been granted the Grammy Award in four occasions: the first time occurred in 1999, for the category of Best Album of the Year, named Miseducation of Lauren Hill, with the song Everything is Everything. This year, he was awarded three times for his album Get Lifted on the R&B genre, in the category of Best R&B Album. The second award was for Best R&B Male Vocal performance for the song Ordinary People, and the third one was in the general genre category, as the Best New Artist.

Regarding the selling release, only in 2004, 1.6 million of copies of Get Lifted  were sold, being #4 in the US (Platinum) and #12 in the UK in 2005.

No doubt John is a R&B Legend whose talent and cultural background can be appreciated in each song he releases.