John Legend's Billboards Tribute To Chrissy Teigen Had Us In Tears
John Legend's song "Never Break" from his 2020 album Bigger Love has a powerful and touching message, and the song by itself is enough to get you feeling all the feels. But he amped up the emotion with a simple, sweet dedication of the song to his wife Chrissy Teigen before he performed it at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards (via Entertainment Tonight).
The song dedication hits hardest in the light of the loss that Legend and Teigen recently suffered. Teigen, who is well known for being open and candid on social media, used Instagram to tell the world the devastating news of losing their baby at the end of September. "We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we've never felt before." They'd announced the pregnancy in his music video for the song "Wild" in August.
It's hard to not get choked up when you know that and then hear him sing lyrics like these. "Who knows about tomorrow? We don't know what's in the stars, I just know I'll always follow the light in your heart ... We will never break."
John Legend continues to get song writing inspiration from his wife and family
The performance was scaled down with just Legend at the piano, and the emotion of the song was clear in his voice and on his face. He didn't write the touching song specific to that tragedy; however, the song and the album overall were inspired by love. When he announced the release of the album on Instagram, part of the caption detailed the album's influence. "The songs are inspired by the loves of my life: my wife, my family and the rich tradition of black music that has made me the artist I am."
Legend has been open about being inspired by Teigen in his songwriting before, most notably with his song "All of Me." He described her influence on the song to LA Confidential, "The more you know someone, the more you're inspired by your relationship ... I guess you have to grow enough to be able to write that song with sincerity and authenticity."