John Stephens, better known by his stage name John Legend, was born in December 1978 in Pittsburgh. At the age of 3 his grandmother began teaching him to play gospel piano, and by the time he was 7 he was singing with the church choir and taking lessons in classical music. Legend attended the University of Pennsylvania (graduating in 1999), where he studied English with an emphasis on John Stuart Mill and culture, and whilst at Penn, he helmed Counterparts, a coed jazz and pop a cappella group as President (1997–1998) and Musical Director (1998–1999). Legend's lead vocals on the group's recording of Prince's "One of Us" propelled the song to critical acclaim, landing the song on the track list of the 1998 “Best of Collegiate a Cappella” compilation CD. On leaving Penn, Legend began working for the Boston Consulting Group, first in Boston and then in New York City, and performed as an independent artist on the nightclub circuit in New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, selling the live LPs “John Stephens” and “Live at SOB's”.

Legend's roommate and Penn classmate, Devon Harris, professionally known as Devo Springsteen, introduced Legend to his cousin and then up-and-coming hip hop artist Kanye West. Since that meeting, Legend and West have worked closely, with West signing Legend as the first artist to his new label, G.O.O.D. Music. Legend sang many of the melodic hooks on West's demo which would eventually become the Grammy Award winning album “The College Dropout”, and in turn, West provided rhythm tracks for Legend's demo, which would evolve into "Get Lifted", Legend's debut album, which was released in late 2004, and has since gone multi platinum. One of the albums popular songs, "Ordinary People", which made both the US and the UK Top 30, was originally meant to be for a Black Eyed Peas project, but Legend decided to keep it for himself. Another single from the album, “Used To Love U”, also made the UK Top 30, and the US Top 100.

Second album “Once Again” was released in October 2006, with production duties shared by Kanye West, Raphael Saadiq, and the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am.

Legend's third studio album "Evolver" released in October 2008, and Outkast's Andre 3000 is featured first single "Green Light". "It's going to be a surprise for a lot of John Legend fans, because it is a lot more upbeat than John is - than people think John is," Andre has insisted. "I was actually happy to hear it. This is a cool John Legend song”.

Legend has sung on hits by Slum Village ("Selfish", also featuring Kanye West), Jay-Z ("Encore"), and Dilated Peoples ("This Way", also featuring Kanye West), has played piano on Lauryn Hill's "Everything is Everything", and has contributed background vocals on Alicia Keys' "You Don't Know My Name". Legend has also contributed to fellow G.O.O.D artist Common's LP, “Be”, and provided vocals for "High Road" on the album “The Rising Tied by Fort Minor” (by Linkin' Park’s Mike Shinoda). He performed with John Mayer and Corinne Bailey-Rae at the 2007 Grammy Awards, and is notable for performing closing music in many of Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs' keynote presentations. Legend featured in the Black Eyed Peas song, "Like That", and has collaborated with the BEP’s Stacy Ferguson (aka "Fergie") for her song "Finally" (from the 2006 album "The Duchess").