John Legend at MGM Music Hall at Fenway, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025.

Looking back on how John Legend became a star with the release of his debut album Get Lifted , it’s easy to see his rise as practically preordained. There was hustling and hard work involved, of course — there would have to have been for an artist as hands-on as he is — but his pre-fame CV looks like a series of opportunities practically falling into his lap, from getting in good with Kanye West while he prepared his own blockbuster debut to stumbling into a Lauryn Hill session while still in college.

Even Legend’s family background — his father a drummer, his mother the church choir director and his grandmother the church organist — practically ordained a successful music career for the young child. When he took the MGM M

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