US singer John Legend has been named the “sexiest man alive” by People magazine.

The 40-year-old, who is married to model and TV presenter Chrissy Teigen, said he was “excited” but “a little scared” by the honour.

Previous winners include Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, David Beckham and last year’s pick, Idris Elba.

“Everyone’s going to be picking me apart to see if I’m sexy enough to hold this title,” Legend told People.

“I’m (also) following Idris Elba, which is not fair and is not nice to me!”

It is the latest accolade Legend can add to his bulging trophy cabinet after last year joining the exclusive EGOT club, becoming one of the few people to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award.

Legend, who is father to daughter Luna, three, and son Miles, one, was unveiled as the sexiest man in the world during Tuesday’s episode of talent show The Voice, on which he serves as a coach alongside Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton.

Country singer Shelton, who was named Sexiest Man Alive in 2017, announced Legend’s win on the show.

He handed him a pair of shorts bearing the letters “EGOTSMA” to represent his latest honour of “sexiest man alive”.

Legend said his wife is proud of him. “I’ve finally impressed her,” he said.

Teigen, a well-known TV personality, posted a video of the couple’s children appearing less than impressed at the news.

Teigen captioned the post: “The kids … do not care.” She later changed her Twitter bio to read “currently sleeping with people’s sexiest man alive”.

Previous winner Elba congratulated his “brother” Legend on Twitter, telling the singer “you deserve it”.

He jokingly added: “DO NOT TELL @TheRock He still thinks he’s got the title, I didn’t have the heart to tell him when I took it.”

Legend is a 10-time Grammy winner who won a Tony Award for co-producing a Broadway play.

He picked up an Emmy for his work on rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar while he took home an Oscar in 2015 for co-writing the song Glory from the film Selma.