Sophia Michaels
John Legend is here to keep people’s spirits up in his Instagram Live concert, which also featured an appearance from his wife Chrissy Teigen. During the lively set, which was part of the new Together at Home concert series led by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, the singer confirmed he has new music on the way.
Legend said that he has new music coming this year and previewed one of the new songs, titled “Actions Speak Louder Than Love Songs.” The upbeat number features a sample from “The Edge” by David McCallum, which is notably the same track Dr. Dre sampled in his 2000 hit “The Next Episode.”
“Just so you guys know, I am putting out a new album this year,” Legend said. “Everybody’s home, you need stuff, you need music, you need TV, you need films. You need stuff to entertain you, so I’m going to put some music out.”
“We’re going to release some music,” he added. “I don’t know what the schedule going to be like, we’re just going to start putting stuff out. We’re in the process of mixing a lot of the stuff on the record. Luckily, I already wrote and recorded most of it.”
He added that due to the pandemic he may not be able to shoot music videos for the upcoming songs, but will look into possibly making animated videos that can be done by an individual.
The highly entertaining hour-long concert, which included performances of Stevie Wonder’s classic song “Love’s in Need of Love Today” and his hit “All of Me,” is available to watch on the singer’s Instagram page. “Social distancing is important, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring,” Legend wrote. “I did a little at-home performance to help lift your spirits.”
The performance is worth a watch in full, especially if you are feeling down. Legend and Teigen, who were joined by their daughter Luna at one point, gave an energetic, hopeful performance, and took the opportunity to encourage viewers to get politically engaged as a result of the current crisis. They even created a new version of The Office theme song at the behest of Mindy Kaling and Legend sang “Beauty and the Beast” at Luna’s request.
The singer closed out the concert by joking that fans should go listen to more of his songs. “They say there might be a corona baby boom after all this,” Legend said. “I have music that will help you.”
Legend has partnered with Global Citizen to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans are encouraged to donate to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, which supports the World Health Organization’s efforts to combat the pandemic.
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