John Legend: EGOT Winner

Singer/songwriter/actor John Legend became the first African-American man to become an EGOT winner. "EGOT" stands for the four big awards in the entertainment industry: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. 

Emmy

Legend won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for producing Jesus Christ Superstar, along with Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice who also became EGOT winners with this award. This win on September 9, 2018 also made him one of the youngest EGOT winners.

Grammy

Legend has won ten Grammy Awards from 27 nominations. His first album, Get Lifted, won him Grammys for Best New Artist, Best R&B Album and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the song Ordinary People.

Songs from succeeding albums Once AgainEvolver and Wake Up! won him more Grammys, with Wake Up! also giving him a win for Best R&B Album. His latest Grammy came from the film Selma where he won for his song Glory.


Oscar

His song Glory also won him an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Tony

In 2017, Legend won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play for co-producing the play Jitney.

To date, there are 15 people who have won all four awards in competitive categories including Robert Lopez (The Book of Morman), who was also 39 when he won his EGOT and the only person to have won all four awards more than once and Whoopi Goldberg, opens a new window, who was the first African-American EGOT winner in 2002.