Jennifer Hudson attains EGOT status
Hudson is the youngest woman in history to earn the title
Singer and Cats apologist Jennifer Hudson is officially the 17th person in history to win a Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. Last night, Hudson won her Tony for the hit Broadway musical A Strange Loop, entering the exclusive EGOT club.
This year’s critical darling A Strange Loop was up for 11 awards last night, taking home the award for Best Musical and Best Book for a Musical. With Hudson on as a producer of A Strange Loop, the win for Best Musical took her across the EGOT finish line. Other producers on the project include RuPaul Charles, Don Cheadle, Mindy Kaling, Billy Porter, and Alan Cumming.
“This brilliant, funny masterpiece exposes the heart and soul of a young artist struggling with his desires, identity and instincts he both loves and hates,” Hudson said during the Tony Awards on Sunday while introducing the musical.
In the words of show creator Michael R. Jackson, A Strange Loop is “a musical about a young Black gay man named Usher who works as an usher at a Broadway show who is writing a musical about a young Black gay man named Usher who works as an usher at a Broadway show… who is caught in a self-referential loop of his own self hatred.” How meta.
When it comes to the other awards, Hudson won her Oscar in 2006 for Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls. She’s received two Grammys, one for Best R&B album in 2009 and the other Best Musical Theater Album for The Color Purple in 2017. For her Emmy, she snagged a daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Media for the animated short Baba Yaga.
Hudson’s not only the youngest woman to ever earn the achievement, but she’s also the second Black woman, following Whoopi Goldberg. She now joins a limited roster alongside names such as Rita Moreno, Alan Menken, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Legend, and Mike Nichols.