It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and I’m living for it! This time of year is truly my favorite as I can’t get enough of the lights, the decorations, the treats and of course, the Christmas tunes! Every year I scour YouTube and Spotify looking for fun new holiday song releases to blast and this year, I found gold! On November 11th, Christmas king, John Legend blessed my ears with his newest festive release titled ‘You Deserve It All’ and came perfectly paired with a joyful lyric video that has been on repeat ever since.
Multi-platinum recording artist John Legend is a well-known name around the world. Originally from Springfield, Ohio, John was born into a musical family. Not only was his father a drummer but his mother sang and directed the choir at the local church where his grandmother played organ. John began playing piano at the age of 4 and in University, he served as the president and musical director of the co-ed jazz and pop a cappella group ‘The Counterparts’. After graduating with honors, Legend was introduced to up and coming hip hop artist Kanye West and ended up signing to his record label GOOD Music. Born John Stephens, it was in his early years that he got his stage name ‘Legend’ given to him by J. Ivy due to John’s old school sound that reminded the poet of the industry legends. After releasing his debut album ‘Get Lifted’ in 2004, Legend’s success skyrocketed. In 2013, he released his most popular hit ‘All Of Me’ which he wrote for his wife Chrissy Teigen and to date has over 2 billion plays on YouTube and 1.6 billion streams on Spotify. His songwriting skills and powerful vocals earned him 11 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Tony and an Emmy Award making him the first African-American man to earn an EGOT.
In 2018, John Legend released his first Christmas album titled ‘A Legendary Christmas’ featuring a combination of some of the classics with a twist as well as fun duets with icons like Kelly Clarkson, Stevie Wonder and Esperanza Spalding. Since its release, fans have been patiently waiting for another Christmas song from him and on November 11th, our wishes came true with the release of the heartfelt holiday track ‘You Deserve It All’. Written alongside pop star Meghan Trainor and produced by the iconic Raphael Saadiq, this single is not only delivering holiday cheer but it celebrates the singer’s signing with major label Republic Records. As if the song wasn’t a gift in itself, it’s release was paired with a professionally produced Christmas themed lyric video that is equally as magnificent.
Seeing as John Legend’s new holiday hit ‘You Deserve It All’ centers around the true gift of gratitude, the lyric video focuses it’s visuals around the theme of presents. Taking direct inspiration from the single cover artwork, the video recreates a vibrant Christmas wonderland utilizing it’s exact red, green and yellow color palette. With a clever grainy retro overlay, this seasonal song is brought to life. The visuals include a recreation of the presents from the single cover as well as other 1960s mod style shape work like triangles resembling Christmas trees, fun tree ornaments and vintage inspired snowflakes. This abstract theme is consistent throughout which is key in a highly produced lyric video. One of my favorite illustrations in this video is the slowly spinning vinyl that reads the lyrics “So I got you something special”. I also particularly enjoy the tree ornament that falls from the top of the screen and bounces down over top of the lyrics and the presents throughout multiple scenes adding a level of depth to the Christmas universe this video lives in. The use of creative transitions such as the quick zoom outs and panning adds just the right amount of energy and a production level that can only be achieved at a professional level. John Legend is known for his class and his old school singing style and this music video perfectly represents not only this song but him as an artist. For a celebratory release with Republic, this was a homerun and I cannot wait to see what they come up with next!
Check out John Legend’s Christmas themed lyric video for ‘You Deserve It All‘ on his official YouTube channel here: