Chicago native JENNIFER HUDSON wins Golden Globe Award!

Jennifer  Hudson was an American Idol finalist and now a Golden Globe Award-winning actress, which proves you don't have win American Idol, to be a success! 

She is best known as one of the finalists on the third season of the FOX reality/talent-search television series American Idol and in the role of Effie White in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls. Prior to American Idol, Hudson worked as a singer and actress aboard cruise ships but never had any formal musical training. But she was one of our favorites from the start!

Hudson was cast in the prized role of Effie White in the film adaptation of Dreamgirls, beating out hundreds of professional singers and actresses for the role including, ironically, Fantasia Barrino who had beaten Hudson in American Idol.





This past week, Jennifer  won a Golden Globe Award as Best Actress in a Supporting Role, dedicating the award to Florence Ballard, upon whom her Dreamgirls character was based. She became the third African American female to win a Golden Globe Award, behind Whoopi Goldberg and Angela Bassett. She has also been nominated for four Black Reel Awards: Best Supporting Actress, Best Breakthrough Performance, and Best Song for. In addition, she was named Best Supporting Actress by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and nominated by the Screen Actors Guild.

Variety wrote that Hudson's performance "calls to mind debuts like Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl or Bette Midler in The Rose, with a voice like the young Aretha." - Do we smell an Oscar?

Chicago's own "Dreamgirl" is having another dream come true. Clive Davis has signed Jennifer Hudson to a record deal and she's already being billed as "the new Whitney" (Houston, that is).

"The new Whitney!" Hudson said to GLARE with a laugh. "Those aren't big shoes to fill, but gigantic shoes to fill."

Hudson says that talk of her record deal began last year when the first 20 minutes of "Dreamgirls" was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. "Everyone kept coming up to me and saying, 'Have you met Clive yet? Does he know this girl?' After that I heard he saw my screen test for 'Dreamgirls.'

"Then I sat and talked to him. Ever since we've been working together to get the record done in 2007," she says.

CONGRATULATIONS  JENNIFER! WE ALWAYS KNEW GREAT THINGS WOULD COME TO YOU!