Her transformation might not be as dramatic as the one Effie White sings about in the second act of “Dreamgirls,” but the EGOT winner is beginning what she describes as her “next chapter.” It all started in Salt Lake City, on the final stop of her 16-city summer tour with Josh Groban. During her set, Hudson would let fans vote on a song for her to perform. Selections ranged from her “Dreamgirls” showstopper “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” and her R&B hit “Spotlight” to her renditions of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” But as Hudson sat backstage on that July 3 evening, she decided to buck tradition.
She chose “Invisible,” a lesser-known song from her self-titled 2008 debut album. In the power ballad’s chorus, Hudson sings, “And now I’m gonna live my life for me, ’cause this ain’t how it’s supposed to be. No more standing in the back of the line, ’cause I’m invisible for the last time.” She hadn’t performed the song in years, but as she belted out the lyrics, something shifted within her.
And I can’t wait to sing it again.” Hudson and I have been chatting in a cabana on a sunny Los Angeles rooftop for about an hour, discussing the journey from her shocking elimination on the third season of “American Idol” in 2004 — she came in seventh place — to winning an Oscar for her acting debut in “Dreamgirls” in 2007 and all that came after. God clearly likes full circles: In April, Hudson returned to “Idol” as a guest judge, moved to tears as one contestant performed “The Circle of Life,” which Hudson also sang on the show. She’s also producing the Broadway revival of “Dreamgirls,” sitting in on auditions as the creative team searches for the next actress whose life will change by playing Effie.
Then she’s got her talk show, “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” which has earned 18 Daytime Emmy nominations since its launch in 2022. This year, she got her first solo nomination for outstanding daytime talk series host. I’m almost an empty nester, and I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m fixing to get a lot of time back.
What am I gonna do with that time? How do you put that into yourself?’ I’ve been disciplined. I’ve crossed every t, dotted every i, and it’s like, but what does it feel like if you take up more space for yourself?” I confess that I, too, am a recovering people-pleaser, but I’m learning that I’m the people I need to please.
That means we’re stuck in the same place. Something’s gotta give.” And in moments when that analogy doesn’t hit hard enough, she recalls a line of dialogue she delivered while portraying Franklin in the 2021 biopic “Respect”: “I do what I want to do. I sing what I want to sing.
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