Jennifer Hudson Becomes the Second Black Woman to Achieve EGOT Status

On Sunday, Jennifer Hudson became an EGOT recipient, winning the Best New Musical Tony Award for co-producing Broadway show A Strange Loop.

Congratulations are in order for Jennifer Hudson. On Sunday (June 13th), the singer-actress received her first Tony Award for co-producing Broadway musical A Strange Loop which won in the Best New Musical Category. Also winning an Oscar in 2007 for her portrayal of Effie White in Dreamgirls, a Grammy for Best R&B Album in 2009 for her eponymous debut album and a Daytime Emmy as executive producer of 2020 VR film Baba Yaga, Hudson has become the 17th EGOT recipient. She is also only the second and youngest Black women to get the honor. (Goldberg achieved EGOT status back in 2002.)

In 2020, Hudson joked to PEOPLE about manifesting an Emmy and Tony Award.

“I got a dog and named it Oscar, and then I won my Oscar. And then I got a dog and named it Grammy, and then I won my Grammy,” Hudson said of her two Pomeranians. “So I think I should get some dogs and name them Emmy and Tony – and it’ll give me good luck, and I’ll win [They’re] like my good luck charms.”

A Strange Loop follows a Black queer man named Usher, who works as an actual usher for musical The LionKing, while he sets off to write his own musical loosely based on his own life.

“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 ceremony while introducing a number from the musical.

Also listed as producers for A Strange Loop include Don Cheadle, Mindy Kaling, RuPaul Charles and Billy Porter.  A Strange Loop playwright Michael R. Jackson also won Best Book of a Musical on Sunday evening.