John Legend Could Join Exclusive EGOT Club

Joining the EGOT club is no easy task, but John Legend's journey to having an Emmy finally stand [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Joining the EGOT club is no easy task, but John Legend's journey to having an Emmy finally stand next to his Oscar, Tony and 10 Grammys is almost complete after the Emmy nominations were announced Thursday.

Legend was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, which nabbed 12 other nods. The production was the most acclaimed of NBC's live musicals so far, earning a nomination for Outstanding Variety Special and for Sara Bareilles and Brandon Victor Dixon's performances.

"When I started my career, I just wanted to make some really great songs and albums and hopefully win some Grammys," Legend told Deadline Thursday. "This recent turn of events is really exciting, but this is nothing, at the beginning of my career, that I would have ever bet on."

"13 nominations for Jesus Christ Superstar this morning! John got two emmy nominations! If he wins, he will complete his EGOT and my spike tv award will probably be moved. But it's ok I AM SO PROUD!" Legend's wife, Chrissy Teigen, tweeted.

Legend, who is only 39, already has 10 Grammys, including 2006 Best New Artist. He also won Best R&B Album for Get Lifted (2006) and Wake Up! (2011). He won a Tony Award in 2017 for co-producing the revival of August Wilson's play Jitney and was nominated earlier this year for his contributions to the Spongebob Squarepants score.

Legend's win at the Academy Awards came in 2015 for "Glory," the song he co-wrote with rapper Common for Ava DuVernay's Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma. The song also won the BET Award for Best Collaboration, the Golden Globe for Best Original Song and the Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media.

Winning the Emmy for Jesus Christ Superstar will be no easy task. The other nominees are Antonio Banderas, who played Pablo Picasso in National Geographic's Genius; Benedict Cumberbatch for Patrick Melrose; Jeff Daniels for The Looming Tower; Jesse Plemons for the Black Mirror episode "USS Callister"; and Darren Criss, who played serial killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.

If he wins, Legend will only be the 13th member of the EGOT club. And even though it would only be 12 years since his first major award win, he still would not break the record for the fastest EGOT completion. That distinction goes to Frozen songwriter Robert Lopez, who waited 10 years between his first Tony and his Oscar.

The other members of the EGOT club are Richard Rodgers, Helen Hayes, Rita Moreno, John Giulguld, Audrey Hepburn, Marvin Hamlisch, Jonathan Tunick, Mel Brooks ,Mike Nichols, Whoopi Goldberg and Scott Rudin.

Jesus Christ Superstar Live was an ambitious live station of the 1970 rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Legend starred in the title role, with Bareilles as Mary Magdalene and Dixon as Judas.

The 70th Annual Emmys air on Monday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

Photo credit: James Dimmock/NBC

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