J.Hud rocks (as always!)

I remember the night Jennifer Hudson was eliminated from American Idol. That was the night I stopped following the rest of the season. She performed Barry Manilow's "Weekend In New England." Manilow himself was so overwhelmed by her performance that he invited her to sing with him live at On Air With Ryan Seacrest the following week. I swear the man had wet his pants 3 times over that day. I don't blame him at all. Never watched Seacrest's show, but that's why I heart YouTube!

I've managed to find and download J.Hud's last Idol performance into iTunes and still have it on my top list of songs 2 1/2 years later:

If you thought that was good, you HAVE to hear this one:


As some of you kids know, Jennifer is Effie White in the screen version of Dream Girls. The role was made very famous by Jennifer Holiday. I'm sure you remember her outrageous vocals:



The clip was from the Dream Girl's Broadway Cast performance during the 1982 Tony Awards. I was so amused to see a VERY skinny Loretta Devine who played Lorrell Robinson in the original cast and will be in the movie as well as a "jazz singer." Poor lady is always so underutilized!
I know I'm fanning the flames of my faggotry by admitting that I'm so psyched to see Dream Girls but I absolutely can't help it. If you check the clips above, I'm sure you'd understand why.

J.Hud's going to get a lot of exposure after the movie is released and I hope she gets a bunch more projects when it happens. I've been hearing such a buzz about her performance in the movie. Do we smell an Oscar nomination?

More importantly though, the woman can sing--I mean, girlfriend can saaaaaaaang!