Singer-songwriter John Legend, who staged two concerts in India last weekend, is now immune to the vagaries of chart success

India has witnessed performances by several Grammy winners but singer-songwriter John Legend is the first EGOT to have played our shores. An EGOT, as you may or may not know, is a term that refers to the small list of individuals who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards.

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Legend, 44, staged two concerts, in Mumbai and New Delhi, last weekend. The shows, which also featured Indian-American rapper Raja Kumari, were organised by Walkers & Co., an initiative by alco-bev maker Diageo. Earlier this year, Kumari and Legend released ‘Keep Walking’, an anthem for Walkers & Co., which they performed live for the first time at the event.

Their pairing seems like an unusual combination, but signing up for a gig like this is par for the course for Legend. The R&B star, blessed with a singing voice that can make the phonebook sound good, fits seamlessly into almost any configuration, and has duetted with pop, hip-hop, jazz, EDM and even country artists.

It’s fair to say that Legend, who was a coach on reality TV singing competition  The Voice from 2019 to 2022, is now one of those acts you see pretty much all the time. Consequently, he’s become the kind of artist who everybody has heard of, even if they’ve never heard any of his music. In other words, he’s become immune to the vagaries of chart success.

A political stand

Legend’s last Top 40 as a lead artist was back in 2016. Yet he’s never been out of the public eye. Over just the last six months, in addition to his stint on  The Voice, he released the autobiographical audiobook  Living Legend on Audible; put out a series of songwriting lessons for online learning platform Masterclass, and completed a six-month run of live dates in Las Vegas.

Ever since he picked up his first of his 12 Grammys, for Best New Artist in 2006, he has been a regular performer — and winner — at award ceremonies. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for ‘Glory’ from  Selma in 2015

While he might seem like a candidate for the Most Likeable Celebrity award, Legend has not shied away from being outspoken about his political stands, and back in 2014 started FREEAMERICA, ‘a campaign to transform America’s criminal justice system’. He is also the co-founder of the production house Get Lifted Film Co., which focuses on spotlighting Black talent.

When asked which of his accomplishments has been the most meaningful, Legend told  The Hindu that “[it] was probably when I won the Oscar for writing ‘Glory’ with Common. It was so special to be part of this film commemorating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His work has been so inspiring and influential to me.” Common and Legend left the audience in tears with their rousing performance of ‘Glory’ at the Oscars in 2015.

Beloved by brands

Despite his fame, critical acclaim and activism, Legend has managed to retain an Everyman image. The openness with which his wife, model, TV host and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen, and he speak about their relationship and personal struggles has turned them into one of the most relatable celebrity couples.

Legend has most recently been roped in for partnerships for products as wide ranging as LG home appliances and, somewhat more controversially, Pfizer vaccines, his endorsement of which received such a strong backlash online that he had to turn off comments on his Instagram post.

A former financial consultant, he has capitalised on his widespread popularity by launching his own brands, such as the wine label LVE and LOVEDº1, an affordably-priced skin care range specifically formulated for melanin-rich skin. “We’re really just being ourselves and doing what we love and sharing some of that with the world,” says Legend about Teigen and his ability to balance their public personas with their private lives.

The secret to Legend’s longevity could also be his fondness for collaboration, the importance of which he says is the biggest lesson he’s learned in his career so far. “So much of my success has been about working with great people.” Perhaps he will next team up with one of the artists currently on his playlists. They include “Kendrick Lamar, Leon Bridges, Yebba, SZA, Nas, James Blake [and] JID”.

What the fans want

If his appearance in Mumbai is anything to go by, it’s clear that he gives fans what they want. His crowd-pleasing hour-long set was filled with greatest hits and, surprisingly, not one track from his newest album, last year’s relatively lesser-known  Legend.  Instead, he threw in one of his live favourites, an uplifting cover of the Beatles ‘Here Comes The Sun’.

He lived up to his Nice Guy reputation, interspersing the songs, which he performed solo on the piano, with softly-spoken anecdotes about how he originally wrote his breakthrough single ‘Ordinary People’ for the Black Eyed Peas but liked it so much that he decided to keep it for himself and how he wrote the chart-topping ‘All Of Me’ for Teigen and played it live for the first time at their wedding 10 years ago.

The No.1 hit was the only track to which most of the crowd sang along. Perhaps this was because this was not an ordinary concert or part of a regular tour. Held in a hall at Mumbai’s Jio Convention Centre, it was in essence, a promotional activity for Johnnie Walker and many of the attendees were invitees rather than ticket buyers.

What made Legend’s performance particularly impressive was not just that he could hold the audience’s attention with only his voice and piano playing but also that he made sure the organiser, an alco-bev company, stopped bar service while he was on stage.

The writer is a Mumbai-based journalist who specialises in the Indian music industry.