Can Jennifer Hudson Sing Her Way to Another Oscar Nomination?

Jennifer Hudson‘s voice is a drive of nature, so highly effective that it received her the Oscar for finest supporting actress in her movie debut as Effie White in Dreamgirls. Fifteen years later, Hudson is again within the awards dialog for her flip because the queen of soul Aretha Franklin within the underrated musical biopic Respect. Though the awards season has but to start in earnest, Hudson is already on some speculative shortlists. And she or he solely strengthened her case when she headlined at The Apollo in Harlem on August 19, the primary stay efficiency on the historic theater since March 2020. 

It was an opportunity to Hudson to showcase her really gorgeous vocals, performing Franklin’s hits in addition to her personal Grammy-award successful music. The present kicked off, fairly fittingly, by exhibiting Hudson’s meteoric rise from American Idol hopeful to Oscar-winner, enjoying her Idol audition—the place she sang Franklin’s “Share Your Love With Me”—adopted by audio of Hudson successful her Oscar and Grammy. Quickly after, Hudson took the stage in leggy burnt orange and black robe and opened with a soulful, a cappella rendition of “Superb Grace,” exhibiting off a vocal vary that may by some means solely develop over the course of the night. 

The hymn was an applicable begin, as a number of elements of the evening felt like church. Backed by a majority feminine band and 4 gifted backup singers, Hudson hit notes most singers can solely dream breaking out non-Aretha songs like “Love You I Do” from Dreamgirls, her single “The place You At” that includes the TikTok viral “deliver” challenge, and letting her backup singers take centerstage on a rendition of her greatest hit “Highlight” as she became a pink shift costume, harking back to choir robes.  

However, in the end, the evening was Hudson’s love letter to the late, nice Aretha Franklin. “Aretha took me again to music faculty,” Hudson mentioned repeatedly, praising Aretha’s genre-defining vocals and prodigious expertise. Hudson shared that she discovered how you can play the piano for her function in Respect, joking that “Aretha performed. I peck” earlier than accompanying herself on a rendition of “(You Make Me Really feel Like) A Pure Girl.” Eagle-eyed viewers would discover {that a} small purse sat on the piano the whole present, a nod to Franklin who would at all times deliver her purse along with her on stage. 

Hudson acquired her first standing ovation of the evening for a heart-wrenching of Franklin’s ballad “Ain’t No Way,” tearing into the extremely difficult bridge with aplomb, seated the whole time. She acquired yet one more standing ovation after completely wailing and nailing arguably Aretha’s most iconic music “Respect.” In considerably of a shock, Hudson revealed that her favourite music to sing is Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” and delivered a haunting, gospel-infused rendition of the oft-sung ballad earlier than closing out the present with “Right here I Am,” the only authentic music from the film. 

However the evening was not over but. Like each nice diva earlier than her, Hudson returned in a ballgown, prepared for or her an encore. In one other refined nod to Aretha, Hudson sang the aria “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s Turandont in Italian— which Franklin stepped in to carry out on the 1998 Grammys when opera famous person Luciano Pavarotti fell sick, displaying her otherworldly musical present in an surprising means.  Hudson even delivered her personal tackle the aria, optioning up and ending the music on a jaw dropping, mix-belted excessive A-Flat because the curtain fell.   

There are, sure, greater than seven months left till the Oscars. But when the affect of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” was sufficient to nearly single-handedly gas Hudson’s first Oscar marketing campaign, don’t underestimate the ability of a whole night’s price of show-stoppers.