JOHN LEGEND HAS PAID HIS DUES

Keywords: Best New Artist, Grammys, Best Male R&B Performance, Ordinary People, Kanye West R&B singer John Legend made an impressive Grammy Awards debut by t…

R&B singer John Legend made an impressive Grammy Awards debut by taking home three of the highly coveted awards. The singer won best R&B album, best male R&B performance and best new artist. While backstage, Legend explained that most winners of the best new artist award are seldom newcomers. He said,

Past winners of the best new artist award include Mariah Carey, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, and Toni Braxton.

“Well nobody is a newcomer. Anybody who wins best new artist is only new to the general public. They always work, you know, a lot before hand to get a record deal, to get the album out. That’s a long struggle. We did, we struggled. We took a while to get noticed. We got turned down by a lot of labels including the one that I’m signed to now. You know it takes time and that’s normal. I’m not mad. I don’t feel vindicative about it. It’s just like, you know, that’s what it was and it happened at the right time. Everything came together beautifully this year, ’05, and we won three Grammys. It feels good.”

While winning the award was a nod from NARAS, Legend is also receiving praises from his peers like Alicia Keys who said, ”He’s special. He’s a person that plays and sings and writes his own music, he’s not trying to keep up with the Joneses.”

Legend is currently working on his sophomore album which he hopes to release later this year.