Grammy award winner American soul singer, lyrics writer and pianist, John Stephens popular by the stage name ‘John Legend’ was born on 28th December 1978 in Pittsburgh. Legend received early education at North High School of Springfield. After successfully completing High School John enrolled to University of Pennsylvania from where he graduated in 1999. His first job after graduation was in Penn with a business consulting firm.

John Stephens had interest in music from an early age. His interest in the field of music was first noticed at age of 3 when John’s grandmother started coaching him to play gospel on piano. He started singing at church and enrolled to learn classical music at the age of 7. Legend started performing as an independent artist in the night club’s of New York, Washington D.C and Philadelphia before he became a mainstream artist. Once Legend’s roommate Devon Harris introduced him to his cousin, an up-coming artist named Keny West. After discovering mutual interests Legend and West started working together. Legend sang in many of the West’s Album, One of these albums turned out to be Grammy award winning album popular by the name ‘The College Dropout’ released under West’s own label G.O.O.D Music. West supported Legend by providing rhythm tracks for his demo. This relationship evolved as a truly synergistic relationship.

John Legend’s first debut album ‘Get Lifted’ released in 2004, produced by Kanye West received enormous critical as well as commercial response. Two singles ‘Get Lifted’ and “Ordinary People” reached US and UK top 30 and “Used to Love U” was consistently played on US top 100 & UK top 30. Legend won five Grammy Awards. Legend’s career started shining before the release of his debut album the primary reason for this unusual occurrence was successive joint efforts with numerous recognized artists. Legend sang the ‘Hooks for Hits’ by Slum Village, Dilated Peoples and Jay-Z, played piano on Lauryn Hill’s “Everything is Everything”, and composed background lyrics on Alicia Keys’ Fort Minor’s and “You Don’t Know My Name”.

John Legend was frequent on Television; He performed notably during super Bowl XL, NBA All Star Game 2006 and in Season finale of Curb ‘Your Enthusiasm’. He also appeared in a T.V serial named ‘Las Vegas in 2007’ towards concluding episodes. Recently he appeared in a commercial for a Lexus SUV. In January 2008 he sang a song for Barack Obama “YES WE CAN”. In a 2008 Target commercial, Legend performed a small part of his song “Slow Dance” to pitch in his new album.

Legend is currently doing his next album with pop star Michael Jackson. Legend sang the ‘National Anthem’ and “The Girl is Mine” with Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report. His latest single is We Just Don’t Care. He preparing for his 3rd studio album named “Evolver”, which is about to release on 28th of October 2008.

John Legend is also known for his philanthropic work; John has contributed for many charities. Recently he launched The Show Me Campaign, through which he encouraged his fans to make a contribution towards improving the living situations of extreme poverty in Mbola, Tanzania. John Legend is also associated with Non profit organizations working for social causes like GAP and Hurricane Katrina relief organizations.