Jennifer Hudson auditioned for American Idol in 2004 with "Share Your Love with Me," sung with clear reverence for the version cut by
Aretha Franklin. Only three years later, after she won an Academy Award for Dreamgirls,
Hudson was summoned by the Queen of Soul, who greeted her with "You're gonna win an Oscar for playing me, right?"
Hudson later acknowledged that she didn't have enough life experience then to portray
Aretha, but by the time the filming of
Respect began in 2019, she and her hero had far more than a gospel background and fame in common.
Hudson's professional achievements during this decade-plus period of unspeakable lows and extreme highs included a Broadway debut in the Tony-winning revival of The Color Purple. It's with the producers of its Grammy-winning cast recording,
Stephen Bray and
Jason Michael Webb, that she made the soundtrack for
Respect. The loosely chronological sequence begins in the church with "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood" -- voiced first by Skye Dakota Turner, who plays the young
Aretha and yields to
Hudson before the end of the first verse -- and finishes in the same setting with the only new song. The finale is a belting testimonial written by
Carole King, co-author of "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman," which is one of ten songs included here that originate from
Aretha's 1967-1968 artistic breakthrough and supernova phase with Atlantic Records. Lesser singers would likely attempt imitation and undoubtedly fall short.
Hudson is among the few who could pull it off. Instead, the powerhouse seems to glean her own past as much as that of her subject, and though she nails some of the queen's mannerisms and inflections -- especially when the material calls for elation and assertion -- her voice remains singular. Performances of three songs from the outstanding live gospel album
Amazing Grace don't have the same sense of urgency, and the crowd noise on "Respect" is jarringly disconnected. More often, however, these renderings glow and do right by the queen.
Hudson, whose recordings since
JHUD have been scattered in terms of purpose, style, and quality, hasn't sounded this inspired in some time. ~ Andy Kellman