A Look At John Legend And His Best Selling Albums

John Legend

John Legend is an American singer/songwriter who has an accomplished career as evidenced by his nine Grammy awards. In 2007, he received the Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

John Legend grew up in Springfield, OH and was an accomplished student. He was the salutatorian of his high school and was offered admission to Harvard University and scholarships to Georgetown and Morehouse College but he chose the University of Pennsylvania where he studied English. He was the musical director of a jazz and pop a cappella group and this led to an introduction to Lauryn Hill who hired him to play the piano on her album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”. From this, he started to perform around the Philadelphia area and expanded his shows to New York, Boston, Atlanta and Washington, DC. After completing college, he started producing, writing and recording music of his own.

He released his debut album, “Get Lifted” in December of 2004 and featured Kanye West and will.i.am and went on to be a certified gold record. It won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album and earned him two other awards: Best New Artist and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. This would be the first of nine Grammy Awards.

John Legend is also involved in philanthropy. In 2007, he worked with Tide laundry detergent to help the families in Louisiana that were hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. He is the spokesperson for GQ Magazine’s “Gentlemen’s Fund” which was created to raise awareness for five cornerstones essential to men: opportunity, health, education, environment and justice. He also lends his time to the “Project Red Campaign” to help raise money for anti-retroviral medicine in Africa to help those living with HIV.

He has released four albums so far, and the following are his best selling to date:

3. Love in the Future  – 648,000+ units sold 

This album was released in 2013 and reach the number 4 spot on the Billboard 200 charts. It received generally positive reviews and was nominated for the best rhythm and blues alum at the 2014 Grammy Awards.

2. Once Again – 2.5 million units sold

The second highest selling album released by John Legend is also the second album that he had released. Once Again was released in 2006 by GOOD Music and Columbia Records. The album was a strong follow up to his debut, and it was produced by Kanye West.

1. Get Lifted – 4 million units sold

Recored at Sound Images studio in Cincinnati, OH Get Lifted was the debut album from John Legend. He released the album that was also produced by Kanye West in 2004. The album was a smash hit and peaked at the number four position on the Billboard 200 chart and took the number one spot for R&B/Hip-Hop charts.

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Written by Sebastian Hensiek

From Philadelphia, Sebastian is a fan of music, writing, art, and entertainment.