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John Legend.
 You'd have heard John Legend's singing and piano playing over the last few years, even if you didn't recognise it. In 1998, he was introduced to former Fugees member Lauryn Hill, and played on her classic album 'The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill'. She wanted Legend to tour with her, but he stayed on to finish college.
He slipped under the radar, doing arrangements and playing on other peoples' records (Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Mary J Blige, Black Eyed Peas, Janet Jackson). Last year, his name came up again, on producer and rapper Kanye West's monster album 'The College Dropout'. West took Legend on the road through America and Europe last year as part of his band and then signed him to his own label.
Legend's album 'Get Lifted' came out this year, and immediately transformed him to r'n'b's new star. He's just bought a new apartment in New York's Greenwich Village and confides that he doesn't drink at all these days because he wants to keep his voice tip-top. After appearing with West and Mavin Staples at the R&B tribute at this year's Grammys, he's been opening for Alicia Keys in North America, and going down a storm. 'Get Lifted' captures the brilliance of original r'n'b but with a verve and humour that came from his hanging out with rappers, not to mention a splendid sense of arrangements. Things have gotten hectic, but without a whiff of arrogance, Legend always figured his time would come.
"I was always ambitious, but I don't think I'd have called myself that!" chuckles the man who was born in Springfield, Ohio, as John Stephens. "My friends gave me the nickname Legend because I had this purist approach to soul music. My dad was a factory worker and my mum was a seamstress. I always wanted to get out of Ohio and end up on the East Coast. I was the only one in my immediate family, and in my neighbourhood, to go to college."
Legend is chatting minutes before going onstage in Connecticut. At his shows he adds to the textures on the record. The opening song Let's Get Lifted and breakthrough hit Ordinary People go off in different tangents to show off his voice and keyboard wizardry. He expands the groove on Live It Up, and the gospel inflections of I Can Change. He does a medley of songs he's played on - including Jay Z's Encore, Dilated People's This Way and Slum Village's hit Selfish - and finishes off with a version of Stevie Wonder's Innervisions.
"People who grew up in church know how to connect with people," Legend reckons. "I took piano lessons at four. My grandmother played organ at the local church and she would take me every week. I picked up on arrangements quickly. By the time I was 11, I was full time organ player and choirmaster to 30 adults. Your whole purpose is to fill the congregation with the spirit and move them. If you've been doing that since you were a kid, it makes sense you'd be better at than most when you have your own shows."
Legend's been lucky, too, that he has the ability when he writes a song to come up with the lyrics, the melodies, the arrangements and even the video. "You're given the gift but you also need to know when opportunity comes to work it," he says.
In Legend's case, it was timing. Earlier this year, 19 of the Top 20 singles in America were r'n'b and hip-hop, but black audiences were also tired of singers who portrayed the African-American experience in a narrow or negative manner. 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill' was the start of a change. It was bright, sparkling, positive. West admits that he listened to that record "a thousand times" before he made 'The College Dropout'.
"Me, Kanye and other artists were heavily influenced by her. We saw it as the best example of the sort of record we wanted to hear and the impact we wanted to make. When I was making my own record, I didn't know what impact it would make. But I was proud of it and I knew it would stand apart from whatever else was on radio. I knew they were songs that people would care about."
Christie Eliezer
 | 'Get Lifted' is out now through SonyBMG.
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