Jennifer Hudson : Last Tourist City Chicago for Christmas
We all know what Jennifer Hudson can do, and she'll no doubt do just that in her first, hourlong television special, "Jennifer Hudson: I'll Be Home for Christmas," which airs Monday.
ABC didn't offer a preview of the special but did pass along three snippets: Hudson lip-syncing a gospeled-up "Silent Night," while seated (rather oddly) alone in the bow of a boat passing under Chicago River bridges; Hudson in personable, girl-next-door mode ushering the cameras into her high school, Dunbar Vocational Career Academy on the South Side, and Hudson singing "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" a cappella in front of a fireplace with four other women whom she eventually blows out of the room.
ABC also promises that Hudson duets with Michael Buble on "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and "Let It Snow," and sings "The Christmas Song" and "O Holy Night" on the special, which marks her return to Chicago "to share childhood memories of the music, people and places that set the stage for her phenomenal success."
What's not mentioned is how or whether the special will address the tragic subtext of her hometown visit, which comes little more than a year after mother, brother and nephew were murdered in Englewood, allegedly by her sister's estranged husband. Hudson since has become engaged to former reality TV star David Otunga, given birth to a boy and made various high-profile appearances (the Super Bowl, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Michigan Avenue) while guarding her privacy regarding the turbulence of the last 14 months.
That's all within her rights, of course; she deserves as much space as she desires. But going home for the holidays is a loaded situation for most regular folks in a normal year, so one can only imagine the fierce undercurrents affecting Hudson as she chooses to venture "Home for Christmas" now in such a public way.
ABC didn't offer a preview of the special but did pass along three snippets: Hudson lip-syncing a gospeled-up "Silent Night," while seated (rather oddly) alone in the bow of a boat passing under Chicago River bridges; Hudson in personable, girl-next-door mode ushering the cameras into her high school, Dunbar Vocational Career Academy on the South Side, and Hudson singing "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful" a cappella in front of a fireplace with four other women whom she eventually blows out of the room.
ABC also promises that Hudson duets with Michael Buble on "Baby, It's Cold Outside" and "Let It Snow," and sings "The Christmas Song" and "O Holy Night" on the special, which marks her return to Chicago "to share childhood memories of the music, people and places that set the stage for her phenomenal success."
What's not mentioned is how or whether the special will address the tragic subtext of her hometown visit, which comes little more than a year after mother, brother and nephew were murdered in Englewood, allegedly by her sister's estranged husband. Hudson since has become engaged to former reality TV star David Otunga, given birth to a boy and made various high-profile appearances (the Super Bowl, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Michigan Avenue) while guarding her privacy regarding the turbulence of the last 14 months.
That's all within her rights, of course; she deserves as much space as she desires. But going home for the holidays is a loaded situation for most regular folks in a normal year, so one can only imagine the fierce undercurrents affecting Hudson as she chooses to venture "Home for Christmas" now in such a public way.
