Jennifer Hudson Earns EGOT Status With Tony Win

You better put some RESPECT on Jennifer Hudson’s name.

Only a select few of entertainers have earned the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) status over the course of their careers in entertainment. And now, the prestigious club has a new member: Jennifer Hudson!

The singer/actress won her first-ever Tony Award Sunday night when “A Strange Loop” won Best New Musical, which she serves as a producer.

Playwright Michael R. Jackson won Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.

The Detroit native said “A Strange Loop” took 18 years to write and he penned it at a time when he felt “unseen, unheard, misunderstood.”

“I just wanted to create a little bit of a life raft for myself as a Black gay man to get through the day,” he said as he received a standing ovation. “There’s so much I want to say. I’m really speechless.”

As for Hudson, now she’s the youngest female and the 2nd Black female EGOT winner in history. Only 16 individuals in history have achieved an EGOT. She joins Whoopi Goldberg (first African American winner) John Legend, as the only two other Black EGOT winners.

James Earl Jones, Harry Belafonte and Quincy Jones have earned “unofficial” EGOT status based on their honorary (Jones) and humanitarian (Belafonte, Jones) Oscar awards.

Hudson won her first big award – an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – for her role as Effie White in 2006’s Dreamgirls. In 2009, she nabbed a Grammy for Best R&B album for her self-titled album and then her second Grammy for Best Musical Theater album for “The Color Purple” in 2017. Stepping into the animation world, JHud won a Daytime Emmy for executing producing the VR-animated film “Baba Yaga,” which she also lent her voice to.