From American Idol to the Second Black Woman, Youngest, and 17th Person to Become an EGOT, Jennifer Hudson is Winning It All.
Coming off hot on the heels of the Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect, Jennifer Hudson’s creative prowess remains high as, A Strange Loop, wins Best Musical at the 2022 Tony Awards. This diverse musical about the blackness and queerness of a young artist was co-produced by Hudson, and turned her into an EGOT. A Strange Loop was written by Detroit native Michael R. Jackson, and was also produced by black and brown entertainers including; RuPaul Charles, Don Cheadle, Mindy Kaling and Billy Porter
An EGOT is someone who has won an Emmy (Television), Grammy (Music), Oscar (Film), and Tony (Musical) Award in their career, and so far, Hudson is their 17th member. In a 2020 People Magazine interview, she joked about getting two new dogs and naming them Tony and Emmy, where at the time, she had already possessed an Oscar and Grammy, and named her two Pomeranians after them.
At 40 years old, she is the youngest EGOT member, and joins American actress, Whoopi Goldberg, as the only two black women to be EGOT’s. Goldberg achieved her EGOT status in 2002 for producing, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and winning an Emmy for the show, Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel.
Hudson was a fan favourite contestant on the third season of the singing competition show, American Idol, in 2004. She placed seventh, but her career took off from there when she made her film debut playing, Effie White, in the 2006 musical, Dreamgirls. That role won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the youngest African-American to win in a competitive acting category. She won her first Grammy for her self-titled debut studio album in 2009 for Best R&B Album, and another one in 2017 for Best Musical Theatre Album for the Musical, The Color Purple. In 2021, she won a Daytime Emmy for voicing and co-producing the animated short, Baba Yag.
