Actor and singer Jennifer Hudson made a surprise visit to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts this week.
But she didn’t sing. It was the students’ turn.
They performed a birthday song for Hudson’s son, David, who turned 13 on Wednesday. It was all a part of Hudson’s visit to Dallas to promote her daytime talk show, The Jennifer Hudson Show, which premieres on KDFW-TV (Channel 4) on Sept. 12.
The students, who were rehearsing for their production of The Wiz, were focused on their musical number, but thrilled at Hudson’s presence.
“About 1 p.m., the kids were going through the second half of their rehearsal schedule and truly locked in,” said Robyn Harris, Dallas ISD executive director of news information. “As soon as the song wrapped, [Hudson] gave a standing ovation.
“Someone said, ‘Oh, my god, it’s Jennifer Hudson.’ In just a few moments, they rushed from the stage to be literally at her feet.”
Hudson, who came at the behest of the school, was scheduled to drop in for a 20-minute appearance but stayed about an hour chatting with students and fielding their questions.
Booker T. Washington Principal Scott Rudes said he was proud of the students for asking Hudson so many questions.
“I didn’t need to fill in any gaps,” he said. “They asked her so many questions. [Hudson] was in awe they had been doing this for only two weeks.”
Introducing ‘The Jennifer Hudson Show’
In a press briefing a couple of hours earlier Wednesday, Hudson talked about her show.
Asked who her dream guest would be? She’s picked Simon Cowell, the caustic American Idol judge. Hudson was an American Idol participant.
“I think it would be so interesting,” Hudson told KERA. “’Idol’ was 18 years ago, so why not? I think people will be interested who’ve followed my journey for 20 years. See us sit down and see us have a conversation. I think that would be awesome to do.
“And then it’s like uh-huh! Now Simon you’re sitting on my couch! So he’s on my wish list, among many others.”
Hudson told KERA that she’ll draw from her experiences as a guest on other talk shows, but she’ll add a twist.
“I think what will set it apart is for me to simply be me,” she said. “You know, I don’t want to be someone that’s just reading the cue card, but speak off of my interests and evolve from there. And this will be what will be the driving force of what the topics are or what the make-up is like. And it’ll be far more organic.”
