John Legend Discusses Christmas Album & NBC Holiday Special

Fresh off of his Emmy Award-winning performance in NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live!, John Legend is ready to bring the holidays into our homes with the help of his wife,  Chrissy Teigen, on new NBC special, A Legendary Christmas with John and Chrissy.

The holiday program will feature guest appearances from Stevie Wonder, Awkwafina, Adam Levine, Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Meghan Trainor, Jane Lynch, Zach Galifianakis and others.

 

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This Christmas, anything can happen. Tune in to @NBC tomorrow night at 10/9c to watch all the magic. #ALegendaryChristmas

A post shared by John Legend (@johnlegend) on Nov 27, 2018 at 10:09am PST

In a new interview with Billboard, Legend discusses the show and new album, A Legendary Christmas, revealing that he’s wanted to record a Christmas record for years.

“I’ve wanted to do it for a long time, and everyone around me was like, ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’ I just never got around to it before, and I had enough time this year and I was focused and excited enough about it to really dedicate a lot of energy to it, and I did. I called Raphael Saadiq early in the process and said I wanted him to produce the whole thing and we just started thinking about what songs we wanted to do, and he put together a kick-ass band and we started making the record.”

Legend wanted both the album and the show to have a “nostalgic vibe,” embracing the holiday staples he cherished as a kid.

“With the entire album there’s a kind of nostalgic feel, from the songs we chose to the way we chose to arrange them, the photo shoot, the video shoot — with everything we’ve been embracing the legacy of great Christmas music that I grew up listening to — Motown, Nat King Cole, just a lot of the classics. So since we’ve been embracing that classic vibe with the music, we wanted to embrace it visually, too. You see that in the show with the production, with the wardrobe choice. Everything’s got a classic, nostalgic vibe.”

Watch A Legendary Christmas with John and Chrissy tonight, Nov. 28, at 10 p.m. EST on NBC.