People magazine names John Legend as 2019 Sexiest Man Alive

Nov 13, 2019 | 8:59 AM

LOS ANGELES — R&B crooner John Legend has been named the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine.

The Grammy-winning singer known for his silky-smooth vocals was revealed as this year’s winner Tuesday night on NBC’s “The Voice.” He serves as a coach on the singing competition series with Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton.

Shelton, who was named Sexiest Man Alive in 2017, announced Legend’s honour on “The Voice.” The country singer then handed Legend some short shorts with bedazzled letters “EGOTSMA” to signify the singer’s many honours: an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony and now, Sexiest Man Alive.

Legend tells the magazine in an issue out Friday the honour comes with some pressure after following Idris Elba, who was last year’s winner. He jokes it “is not fair and is not nice to me!”

The 40-year-old Legend is a 10-time Grammy winner. He scored an Oscar in 2015 for co-writing the song “Glory” from the film “Selma.” He won a Tony Award for his co-producer work on “Jitney” and took home an Emmy as a producer on NBC’s live version of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” a project in which he also played the role of Jesus.

Legend has two children with model-television host-cookbook author Chrissy Teigen.

Other recent winners include Dwayne Johnson, Chris Hemsworth, Adam Levine, Channing Tatum and David Beckham.

“I want to thank Blake Shelton,” Legend said. “I observed every move he made, every utterance that came from his mouth and I think some of it rubbed off on me.”

Legend said his wife is proud of him.

“I’ve finally impressed her,” he said.

The couple’s children? Not so much. Teigen posted a video of the reveal of their daughter asking to turn off “The Voice” and go back to a movie. Teigen titled the post “The kids … do not care.”

Jonathan Landrum Jr., The Associated Press