John Legend is a well-known celebrity that has quite a decorated career, but he’s most known for his singing and songwriting. The 41-year-old has managed to create and uphold a lot of success through his years, and many people became his fans through his work on the hit TV show The Voice. However, there’s still a lot that many fans and individuals don’t know about him. Here are some fascinating and little known facts about John Legend to enrich your knowledge.
Why “Legend”?
As with many other celebrities, John Legend was not in fact born with that name. His name was John Roger Stephens, and Legend was a later name he chose as well as kept throughout the rest of his career. When asked why he chose this name, John discussed with MTV News in 2008 that it was a nickname that became so common he was more known as Legend than as Stephens. John said he’d never choose Legend on his own, but when it became so common of a name for him he made the choice to keep it.
The First Black Man To Get EGOT
EGOT status is when a celebrity has won a competitive category Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award in their career. John Legend was the first black man to achieve that status, and the youngest person to do so as well. When he was 39 he received an Emmy for his work in producing a movie that sealed his EGOT status. Before that, he had already won a Tony award, 10 Grammys, and an Oscar. These were based on his song “Glory” which was featured in the film Selma in 2014.
Popularity In High School
Not many celebrities can say they were genuinely popular all the way in high school; in fact, some seemed like different people entirely. John sometimes discusses his popularity in high school, he spoke up about it to Us Weekly talking about this topic as well as how his wife Chrissy laughs at that when he brings it up. Legend was student body president in his high school days and even won prom king too. Seems like plenty of people knew he was good with people even before he grew into career success later in life.
Early Singing Jobs
Everyone has to start somewhere in their life, and John started out singing for weddings as a teen. He’s told reporters about how he sang at weddings for his early singing career, which seems to have translated into the rest of his life too since he sang for his own wedding in 2013. He also sang for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s wedding later on in 2015. A way he connects with his fans through this is to make surprise appearances at fan weddings throughout the years.
His Family Life
John married Chrissy Teigen in 2013, and she also has had quite her own career in areas like modeling and more. Chrissy spoke about how they met in a 2014 interview and told the story which took some fans by surprise. In fact, the two met on the set of a 2007 film set for John’s song Stereo’s music video. Chrissy played his love interest in the video, and they hit it off later on. Since then the two got married and have had two children together with one on the way.
Helping Out
One of the trademarks of his career is as a philanthropist. John works to speak out for helping others in many different ways and aspects. His Show Me Campaign works with so many foundations across the country and the globe that are working to help with different causes for human rights and betterment. Some of the biggest issues Legend speaks out on and works towards include helping teachers, addressing systemic issues in the U.S., helping children get out of school with better options, and improving the justice system to be fairer to minorities.
From information behind his success and struggle to his name and family, there’s plenty to know or learn about John that many people haven’t considered. If you did know some of these you’re probably quite the fan or quite well-read on the subject. It’s interesting to be able to collect knowledge on the celebrities or singers that you like to pay attention to or to learn more in general about the world behind many famous faces so hopefully, this helps you to do that.