Jennifer Hudson achieved EGOT status after Broadway’s “A Strange Loop” nabbed the Tony Award for Best Musical.
Hudson served as a producer for the play. Hudson also has an Emmy, a Grammy and an Oscar.
As of 2022, only 17 people have accomplished this status, including Rita Moreno and Whoopi Goldberg.
The EGOT acronym was coined by actor Philip Michael Thomas in late 1984 when his role on the new hit show Miami Vice brought him instant fame, and he stated a desire to achieve the EGOT within five years. Thomas has never been nominated for any of the EGOT awards.
“A Strange Loop” follows Usher, a Black gay man who is working hard on a musical about a Black gay man. “A Strange Loop” also took home Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical. RuPaul Charles, Don Cheadle, Mindy Kaling, Billy Porter and Alan Cumming are also credited as producers.
Last year, Hudson starred as “Queen of Soul,” Aretha Franklin.
“I think she was a sponge [who was] learning as she went on,” she told NME at the time. “Think about it: everyone in her life was a legend or an icon. That blows me away.”
“Respect” follows Franklin’s meteoric rise from a child singing in the church’s gospel choir to a global megastar. Hudson sang the hymn “Amazing Grace” at Franklin’s funeral, 50 years after Franklin sang “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” at Martin Luther King Jr.’s memorial.
Hudson was hand-picked by Franklin to play her before she sadly passed away in 2018 after succumbing to pancreatic cancer. She was 76.
She added, “You can’t help but absorb greatness from that,” Hudson continues. “And although she started out taking a backseat, eventually she crept up and took charge of her own life and career. And when she did, that’s when we got our Queen of Soul.”
