Jennifer Hudson received a Grammy Award from Whitney Houston in 2008; at this year’s honors, Hudson will do her best to give something back — an homage — to the late singer.
Multiple sources have confirmed that the “Dreamgirls” Academy Award winner Hudson will be singing a tribute during tomorrow’s (Feb. 12) Grammys ceremony. With the Los Angeles-based show only a day away, organizers were able to firm up a performance from Hudson mere hours after Houston was confirmed dead at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
As she was in years past, Houston would have been among the main attendees at Clive Davis’ annual pre-Grammy bash tonight, held in the very same hotel she was found dead. The 48-year-old actress/singer was a six-time Grammy Award winner.
The Grammy Awards have yet to send out an official press release regarding Hudson’s participation. However, Grammy executive producer Ken Erhlich told the L.A. Times that Hudson’s tribute will be “respectful.”
“It’s too fresh in everyone’s memory to do more at this time, but we would be remiss if we didn’t recognize Whitney’s remarkable contribution to music fans in general, and in particular her close ties with the Grammy telecast and her Grammy wins and nominations over the years,”
Hudson had commented on Houston just this week, during an interview with Grammy Museum director Bob Santelli. “Who would present me with my first Grammy, Whitney Houston herself – that almost overshadowed getting the Grammy,” she said of that moment in 2009. Hudson collected a statue for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for “Love You I Do” from “Dreamgirls,” but Houston presented her the award for Best R&B Album for her self-titled 2008 album at the same show, only a few weeks after members of Hudson’s family were murdered in her hometown Chicago.