How Old Is John Legend and What Is His Ethnicity?
Musical phenom John Legend is known for his amazing voice, his power couple status with wife Chrissy Teigen, and the family’s often hilarious and always heartfelt lives together on social media. Fans adore the star and his adorable family, which includes their children, Luna, Miles, Esti, and Wren.
Digging a little deeper into this star’s background and history reveals a fascinating story rooted in the fabric of America. It makes Legend’s rise to fame and influence even more powerful.
How old is John Legend?
John Legend was born John Rogers Stephens on December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio, reports Biography. His mother was a seamstress; his father was a factory worker.
Both his mother and his grandmother were heavily involved in Legend’s education. He was homeschooled and started his singing career and piano training in the church choir. This start would be a springboard for the Grammy winner whose influence can be seen in his many partnerships with musicians across genres and styles.
Legend’s path to success included co-directing a capella group at the University of Pennsylvania and moonlighting at New York City nightclubs while he tried his hand at a more traditional career for the Boston Consulting Group.
Eventually, his talents and passions pulled him into full-time entertainment. It’s clear he found the place he was meant to be. Legend’s 2004 album Get Lifted elevated him to full-on star status, and there has been no turning back. That album and its breakout single “Ordinary People” snagged him a Grammy in 2006.
Today, Legend is 45 years old.
What is Legend’s ethnicity?
Both of Legend’s parents are African American. In 2012, Legend underwent a very public reveal of some of his ancestral history on the PBS TV show Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
During the show, researchers were able to trace Legend’s history back to his great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Peyton Polly. Polly was born into slavery but was freed by the slave master’s will.
Polly was living as a free man with his family in Ohio when his children, then aged 4 to 17, were kidnapped by slave drivers from Kentucky and taken South. There, the children were separated throughout Kentucky and Virginia and sold into slavery.
Polly boldly went to the authorities to fight to get his children back. Over many months and with the involvement of the Ohio governor, he found himself amidst the tensions that fueled the Civil War just a decade later.
Kentucky released the four children who had been kidnapped and sold into their state and reunited them with Polly. However, Virginia refused to release the remaining four children who were held in slavery there. They remained captive until the Civil War ended. Polly’s fight to keep his family together represents the battles that occurred throughout the country and the history of America’s troubled legacy.
In addition to this fascinating and heartbreaking history of courage, the show revealed Legend’s DNA ancestry as well. The singer is 64% African, 32% European, and 4% Native American, with roots most likely in the Fula people of Guinea-Bissau and the Mende people in Sierra Leone.
Legend’s ancestral ties and his rise to fame are part of the story of what it means to be American.
