Jennifer Hudson Reveals Whether She Thought She’d Win American Idol

The whole world was rightly shocked when the performer of the powerful singer Jennifer Hudson was eliminated from American Idol third season in 2004. After a string of stellar performances, Hudson was placed in the bottom three along with fellow contestants LaToya London and eventual winner Fantasia Barina in week six after performing Barry Manilow’s New England Weekend. While Elton John called the voices “incredibly racist,” judge Simon Cowell said recently blame the song choice during an appearance on Hudson’s a new daytime talk show The Jennifer Hudson Show.

Almost two decades later, Jennifer Hudson is one of the Glamour‘s Women of the year 2022– opened up about the experience, telling Glamour that while she didn’t think she’d win, she was surprised to go home so quickly given the momentum she’d been building and consistently getting so many votes. Still, she knew her career was far from over.

“I thought, OK, this is the end of the road, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end because I still have my gift and what I’ve learned from my [Idol] experience,” she said in her Woman of the Year profile. “What can I take from this to move forward?”

The next step, of course, was to win an Oscar. Just a few months after her departure idol, Jennifer Hudson was invited to audition for the role of Effie White in the Dream girls. And with that role, co-starring Beyoncé and Jamie Foxx, the singer ticked off the Oscars on her way to making EGOT history.

By 2022, she cemented her place as the 17th performer to win an Emmy (for series producing Baba Yaga), Grammy (she has two), Tony (for producing Amazing loop) and, of course, the Oscar, joining the ranks of Hollywood EGOT icons like Audrey Hepburn and Rita Moreno. And to be clear, this is a more exclusive club than the winners American Idol (there are 19 and growing). Just saying.