Welcome John Legend to the EGOT Club

Well, he did it. John Legend’s win at Sunday’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles has made him the youngest person to join the elite group of EGOT winners—people who have at least one trophy from each of the major U.S.-based entertainment awards (the Emmys, the Grammys, the Oscars, and the Tonys). He’s the first black man to receive all four awards in competitive categories (i.e. none of Legend’s were honorary, as at least one was in the case of John Earl Jones, Quincy Jones, and Harry Belafonte).

Legend’s Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) for producing Jesus Christ Superstar completes his set. He previously won 10 Grammys (including Best New Artist in 2006), a Best Original Song Oscar in 2015 for co-writing Selma’s “Glory,” and a Tony in 2017 for co-producing Jitney, which won in the the Best Revival of a Play. Legend is also the first all-competitive EGOT winner whose primary medium is recorded music. Pretty good!

Legend described his EGOT-completing victory as “kind of surreal” to Entertainment Tonight. Not melting-clocks surreal. Not dream-within-a-dream surreal. Just kind of. Seems like a fair assessment. He may very well repeat his win at next Sunday’s Primetime Emmy Awards, where he will be nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie, again for his work on Jesus Christ Superstar.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice also won Emmys last night, completing their EGOTs as well. Together with Legend they are the 13th, 14th, and 15th entertainers to do so in all competitive categories. This picture of the three newest members to the EGOT club? Kind of surreal, actually.