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At last night’s 2022 Tony Awards, Jennifer Hudson became the newest member of an elite category in the entertainment world. The 40-year-old Chicagoan was a producer on Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop, winning the Best Musical award on Sunday.
And with that victory, Hudson completed “the grand slam of Hollywood showbiz” and joined the select EGOT club: winners of an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, An Oscar Award, and a Tony Award. Only 17 people have now achieved that rare feat, five of whom are women. Hudson also becomes only the second Black woman to capture all four honors, after Whoopi Goldberg did so two decades ago.
In 2007, Hudson picked up the Oscar for best-supporting actress in Dreamgirls. She then received the first of two Grammy Awards a couple of years later for her self-titled debut album. Hudson got her second Grammy win in 2017 as a then-cast member of Broadway’s The Color Purple, and she snagged a Daytime Emmy last year as an executive producer on Baby Yaga.
But six years ago, it wasn’t all love between the American Idol alum and the Tonys. Hudson delivered a captivating performance as Shug Avery in the revival of The Color Purple, and many insiders believed she would get a nod for the Featured Actress in a Musical award. The show did earn four nominations for the 2016 Tonys, including one for Best Revival of a Musical. However, Hudson herself was completely off the list that year, leaving her with a sour taste. Meanwhile, her costars, Cynthia Erivo and Danielle Brooks, each earned a nomination of their own.
So Hudson tweeted her displeasure and threw some shade at the producers, hinting they used her star power to promote their show. Interestingly, Hudson’s six-month contract with the show wasn’t renewed. In a move The New York Times called “a bit awkward,” she was instead replaced with another veteran R&B songstress. But Hudson eventually deleted her tweet, congratulating Erivo and Brooks via IG in the end.
