To celebrate the 100th episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, Jennifer Hudson and John Legend performed an impromptu duet of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Videos by American Songwriter
The two singers were going through the talk show motions when Legend noticed a piano on the side of the stage. Given his masterful status on the ivories, Legend suggested the two sing a little something together.
“I know you very famously played the great Aretha Franklin, and she did a wonderful version of this song,” Legend told Hudson. “I like to do this song too, and it’s on my new solo album. We gotta do a little bit of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water.’”
As expected, the pair delivered a moving rendition of the 1970 classic. Sadly, they didn’t perform the entire track. With any luck, there will be a more formal version of the duet released later. Check it out below.
Hudson recently paid tribute to another soulful diva at Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy party, where she performed a show-stopping cover of Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All.” To make the tribute even sweeter, Houston’s co-star from The Bodyguard, Kevin Costner, joined her on stage.
“Neither one of us, in the end, could protect your beloved Whitney,” Costner remarked to Davis from the stage. “But your fingerprints on her life are clean my friend. You were a miracle in her life. Thank you for being her bodyguard, Clive. Everyone in this business has a mom, but not everyone has a Clive.”
Legend recently released an EP titled Legend (Solo Sessions), featuring piano-led versions from his 2022 album, Legend. In addition to his cover of “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” original tracks include “Honey,” “Nervous,” “Wonder Woman” and “One Last Dance.”
“The songs are about love,” Legend said in a statement. “They’re songs about expressing yourself and being inspired and telling your authentic truth when it comes to who you are and how you feel about the people you love.”
He continued, “I really thought about each song and what songs I could do cool versions of on piano. Some of them, I would want to stick closer to the original vibe and energy of the original recording. But for some of them, I thought it’d be fun to do a really fresh take on it. I wanted to record them in a way that was more intimate so that people could really feel and listen to every lyric.”
Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
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