John Legend was born in Springfield, Ohio. His career began at the age of 3, when his grandmother began teaching him to play gospel piano. By the time he was 7 years old, Legend was singing with the church choir and taking lessons in classical music. Legend attended Springfield North High School, graduating as Salutatorian at 16. He was also prom king and president of the student council.
Legend attended the University of Pennsylvania (Class of 1999), where he studied English with an emphasis on African American literature and culture. While at Penn, he helmed Counterparts, a coed jazz and pop a cappella group as President (1997-1998) and Musical Director (1998-1999). Legend's lead vocals on the group's recording of Joan Osbourne's "One of Us" propelled the song to critical acclaim, landing it a coveted spot on the track list of the 1998 Best of Collegiate a Cappella compilation CD.
Oddly enough, his first job after graduating from Penn was not in the music business -- Legend began working for the Boston Consulting Group in Boston and then New York City. Before becoming a mainstream artist, Legend hit the nightclub circuit in New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., performing as an independent artist and distributing live LPs such as John Stephens and Live at SOB's.
It was John Legend's roommate and former Penn classmate, Devon Harris, professionally known as Devo Springsteen, who introduced Legend to his cousin and then up-and-coming hip hop artist Kanye West. Since that meeting, Legend and West have worked closely together, with West signing Legend as the first artist to join his new label, G.O.O.D. Music. Legend sang many of the melodic hooks on West’s demo, which would eventually become the Grammy Award winning album The College Dropout; in turn, West provided rhythm tracks for Legend’s demo, which would evolve into Get Lifted. Recently, Legend contributed to fellow G.O.O.D artist Common's LP, Be, and provided vocals for "High Road" on the album The Rising Tied by Fort Minor (Mike Shinoda).
SHOW ME CAMPAIGN
After reading Professor Jeffrey Sachs' book, "The End of Poverty", John Legend was inspired to visit Ghana to learn more about making life better for others. This is when he started The Show Me Campaign in 2007. With this campaign, Legend is calling on his fans to help him in his initiative for those who reside in Bossaso Village and few other non-profit organizations that the campaign partners with.
John Legend has launched his own record label, HomeSchool Records which forms out talent to companies like Sony for distribution.
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