awards for arts achievement

John Legend is a singer, songwriter, and pianist whose 2004 debut studio album, Get Lifted, has sold more than three million copies worldwide. In 2006, he won three Grammy Awards, including Best R&B Album for Get Lifted, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the song "Ordinary People," and Best New Artist. With the release of his second album Once Again, which also went platinum, he received another Grammy in 2007 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Heaven," and a fifth for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals—with Joss Stone and Van Hunt—for "Family Affair" (a track from Different Strokes by Different Folks, a Sly & the Family Stone tribute album). Prior to the release of Get Lifted, Mr. Legend's career gained momentum as an in-demand studio session writer and musician, working on a series of successful collaborations with artists such as Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, and The Black Eyed Peas.

Raised in Springfield, OH, Mr. Legend started playing piano at the age of four. By seven, he was singing with his church choir and during his teen years developed his musical talents as a gospel pianist and choir director. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 with a B.A. in English. While at Penn, he helmed the Counterparts, a coed jazz and pop a cappella group, serving as its president and music director.

In 2007, after reading the Jeffre Sachs book The End of Poverty, Mr. Legend visited Ghana and was inspired to create the Show Me Campaign, taking its name from a song he wrote that "charts a conversation with God about the state of the world and the individual's place in it." A grassroots movement, the campaign's mission is to fight economic and spiritual poverty through fostering sustainable development.