America has seen its fair share of shocking election results. Take, for example, one fateful night in 2004, when Jennifer Hudson was eliminated from the third season of “American Idol” after a rendition of “Weekend in New England” that, despite acclaim from the judges, landed her in seventh place.
Over time, that placement has only felt more and more shocking, particularly given the monumental success she’s had in the 20 years since then. When it comes to Jennifer Hudson, multi-hyphenate doesn’t begin to cut it. There’s no corner of the entertainment industry she hasn’t been able to thrive in.
Just a little over a year after that elimination, Hudson was cast as Effie White in Dreamgirls — a role that earned her an Academy Award and helped launch her career to new heights. That trophy was just the first piece of hardware in her eventual EGOT. She won her first of two GRAMMYs for her debut self-titled album in 2009, an Emmy in 2021 for producing the animated short Baba Yaga, and rounded out the rare achievement with a Tony for producing the musical “A Strange Loop” in 2022. That same year she also launched her own syndicated talk show, “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” which has racked up 10 Daytime Emmy nominations so far. That’s not to mention the dozens of iconic roles in film, television, and Broadway she’s picked up along the way.
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Now, after signing a new deal with Interscope Records, she’s returning to music for the first time since 2014 with the Christmas album The Gift of Love, out Oct. 18. And while technically this does mark Hudson’s first studio album in 10 years, she agrees that it doesn’t feel like she ever stopped making music.
“Music is the blueprint in everything I do, so I don’t see a difference. Like, come on, there’s the Respect soundtrack, the Color Purple cast recording, if I’m attached to a project, I’m always singing,” she tells GRAMMY.com. “Even the talk show, I sing the theme song!”
As a self-described “holiday fanatic,” Hudson says a Christmas album has been on her to-do list for a long time. “The fun thing about Christmas music, there is no such thing as cheesy or going too far with it. You can have fun with it. You can be a kid again and express yourself,” she says.
GRAMMY.com caught up with Hudson ahead of the holiday season to look back at the many chapters of her storied career, and talk about why this album is her most personal yet.
I was excited to hear what this album would sound like, because a Christmas album can be so many different things. You’ve spoken before about how there are different types or sub-genres of holiday albums. How would you classify The Gift of Love amongst those different categories and how did you land there?
It’s hard. That’s part of why I’ve never come up with one, I’m a holiday freak. How do I even narrow it down? Because there are different types of Christmases — like a North Pole Christmas, or a “Winter Wonderland” Christmas with frost and candles, or “O Holy Night” and “Auld Lange Syne” where it’s a more mature, cozy Christmas. And I love celebrating them all, so The Gift of Love reflects that. Everyone has something.
Despite the majority of the album being covers, it feels extremely personal. For example, you mention singing “Little Drummer Boy” like your grandmother used to. Does this album feel connected to your childhood or family in ways other albums haven’t?
I feel the most connected to this album out of all my albums, and very much for those reasons. It reflects me in some way. Obviously with covers, we don’t write them, we sing them, but they’re connected to my family traditions. My grandmother used to love “The Christmas Song” and I remember her saying, ‘The man with the satin voice,’ about Nat King Cole, so that inspired me to do that song. And “Drummer Boy,” the way we approached it I’m showing you my roots of where I came from musically.
So in this album, whether it’s musically or lyrically, my story shows up. Even with “O Holy Night,” I would make a different arrangement every year and pass it out to my family, so that had to be on there. But this year, I get to give my family a whole album instead of just one song.
People mention your “American Idol” elimination a lot, but I want to talk about what Barry Manilow, who was the mentor and guest judge that week, did right after that by bringing you with him to perform on “Ryan Seacrest Live.” How do you think that changed both your experience getting voted off, as well as your subsequent trajectory?
Barry Manilow is one of the greats, and for him to take me under his wing like that, you can’t help but be inspired. You’re taking me back, wow — but yeah, it was Ryan Seacrest’s radio show and it was actually Barry Manilow’s slot to perform and he was, I guess, inspired or touched by my performance and elimination.
I also wanna give him credit for being a part of me getting Dreamgirls as well, because when he came to the show, he restructured “Weekend in New England” with the musical breakdown and structure of “And I Am Telling You” because I reminded him of Effie. To this day, people think I did “And I Am Telling You” on Idol and I’m like no, that was “Weekend in New England.” And that partly led to me getting Dreamgirls.
Speaking of, what was the biggest gift that came from playing Effie in Dreamgirls, and specifically playing her so early in your career?
I mean, shoot, what’s the scripture? Two fish and five loads of bread? It’s like he said, “I’m going to give you this one role, and watch how far it’s gonna take you.” And to think of all the things I’ve gotten to do, and the lane that I’ve carved for myself in this industry, from that one experience. Even going back to American Idol, I said, I wanna do this for the experience. So by the time Dreamgirls rolled around, that was my second chance. And I learned from the first time around, like ok, if I get another opportunity, I’m taking it and I’m running with it. And I’ve been running ever since.
