CULTURE

John Legend Broke Some EGOT Records

And Chrissy Teigen was there to troll support him.

Sep. 10, 2018

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

As of Sunday night, John Legend has officially joined an extremely elite group of entertainment icons by becoming, as wife Chrissy Teigen so eloquently put it, an “EGOT GOAT.” John earned his EGOT — the label bestowed upon those talented few who have earned Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards throughout their careers — during Sunday’s Creative Arts Emmys, when he took home the Outstanding Variety Special trophy for his hand in producing NBC’s live version of Jesus Christ Superstar, in which he also played the titular role. Prior to this win, John earned a Tony Award in 2017 for co-producing Jitney and an Oscar in 2015 for the song he wrote for Selma, along with the casual 10 Grammys he’s amassed as a musician.

With that Emmy, John became the first black man to officially EGOT in competitive categories, per the BBC. (James Earl Jones, Harry Belafonte, and Quincy Jones also received all four trophies, but at least one of each was an honorary or non-competitive award, while Whoopi Goldberg is the only other black person to EGOT in competitive catagories) He’s also the second-youngest person to achieve the honor: Robert Lopez, the mastermind behind the songs in Frozen and Coco, earned his EGOT just a few weeks after his 39th birthday, while John’s came a few months after turning 39. He also falls just short of Robert Lopez for another record, since he earned all four awards over a span of 12 years, while Robert EGOT’ed in 10.

John commemorated his big win in an Instagram post on Sunday night. He posted a photo with musical theater legends Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who also EGOT’ed with Jesus Christ Superstar‘s victory, and wrote, “Before tonight, only 12 people had won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony in competitive categories. Sirs Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice and I joined that group when we won an Emmy for our production of their legendary show Jesus Christ Superstar. So happy to be part of this team. So honored they trusted me to play Jesus Christ. So amazed to be in such rarefied air.” He also posted a video in his Instagram Story of his incredible, newly completed wall of trophies, captioned, “Welcome home.”

Chrissy also uploaded a clip of John adding the Emmy to their trophy wall, and though she was undoubtedly proud of her husband, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to slip in some light trolling. “And I say hey, what a wonderful kind of day,” she captioned the video, a reference to the many comparisons that have been drawn between John and Arthur the aardvark. A lesson in making sure the EGOTs around you stay humble.

Legend’s possible EGOT win had gone under the radar, as many expected the songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the duo responsible for the songs in both La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen, to be the next to reach the milestone (they already have the “GOT” portion). The pair were also nominated last night for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for “In The Market For A Miracle”) from A Christmas Story Live!, but they lost to Kenan Thompson and his Saturday Night Live cohorts for the Chance The Rapper performed-song “Come Back Barack.”