Jennifer Hudson
Aug 8, 2011
After singing for a year on a Disney cruise ship, Jennifer Hudson auditioned for the third season of FOX's American Idol in 2004. As a finalist, she gained exposure and a fan base, and then all but disappeared from the limelight until 2005. That year, Hudson beat out hundreds of competitors to win the role of Effie White in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls. Her scene-stealing performance earned the young singer several awards including a Golden Globe, an Oscar, and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
On May 30, 2008, Jennifer Hudson continued on her acting path and appeared in the hit movie, Sex in the City, and starred in The Secret Life of Bees in October of 2008 along with Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Sophie Okonedo. Her self-titled debut album was released in September 2008. Jennifer Hudson debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with first week sales of 217,000 copies. A commercial success, it was eventually certified gold by the RIAA for over 500,000 sold copies. Altogether, the album spawned a total of three singles, including leading single "Spotlight," which reached the top of the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and the top twenty of the UK Singles Chart. In 2009, Hudson won three NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding New Artist, Outstanding Album and Outstanding Duo or Group for the album, and was nominated for four Grammy Awards, winning in the Best R&B Album category.
Hudson's new album, I Remember Me, released March 2011, is a remarkable step forward for one of the biggest and most talked-about stars to emerge in recent years. The songs on I Remember Me were written and produced by an all-star line-up of the biggest talents in music today, including R. Kelly (who is behind the album's first single, the hit "Where You At"), Alicia Keys, Ne-Yo, Polow da Don, and Salaam Remi. Harvey Mason, who has worked with singers from Aretha Franklin to Justin Timberlake to Whitney Houston, produced Hudson's vocals throughout. The album producers are the legendary Clive Davis and Larry Jackson.
Her second single off the album, "No One Gonna Love You" impacted on Urban adult contemporary radio in the US on May 24, 2011, and reached number forty two on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
