--- title: What Jennifer Hudson Was Reacting to in That Oscars Meme description: Jennifer Hudson's affirmative response to Lady Gaga's emotional acceptance speech at the 2019 Oscars quickly became a meme. canonical: https://time.com/5537009/jennifer-hudson-oscars/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-25T15:48:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:41.351Z og:title: Jennifer Hudson's Reaction to Lady Gaga's Speech Is a Meme og:description: A highlight of the 2019 Oscars og:url: https://time.com/5537009/jennifer-hudson-oscars/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf28e95f746d8127/698945d4096a9478026a4a5b/jennifer-hudson-oscars-meme.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: US-OSCARS-FAN-ARRIVALS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jennifer Hudson's Reaction to Lady Gaga's Speech Is a Meme twitter:description: A highlight of the 2019 Oscars twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf28e95f746d8127/698945d4096a9478026a4a5b/jennifer-hudson-oscars-meme.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jennifer Hudson's Oscars Reaction Meme Should Be Extremely Useful to You From Now On > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ea40e814-9476-4bca-aa9f-88c09007ef1b&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 25, 2019 3:48 PM UTC  US singer Jennifer Hudson arrives for the 91st Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on February 24, 2019\. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) US singer Jennifer Hudson arrives for the 91st Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on February 24, 2019\. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) Robyn Beck—AFP/Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 25, 2019 3:48 PM UTC While the [91st Academy Awards](http://time.com/5536768/2019-oscars-review/) were filled with [plenty of surprises](http://time.com/5534976/oscars-2019-winners/) and memorable moments, one instance looks like it will be relived online over and over again, thanks to the Internet. [Jennifer Hudson](http://time.com/3822329/jennifer-hudson-sing-drive-thru-order-james-corden-carpool-karaoke/), who performed “I’ll Fight” from _RBG_, was seen visibly affirming Lady Gaga during [Gaga’s highly emotional Oscars acceptance speech](http://time.com/5536542/lady-gaga-bradley-cooper-2019-oscars/). When the camera panned to Hudson during the speech, viewers at home could see that she was silently mouthing “yes, yes,” as Gaga talked about her journey to winning Best Original Song. “If you are at home and sitting on your couch watching this right now, all I have to say is this is hard work,” Gaga said. “I have worked hard for a long time, and it is not about winning but it’s about not giving up. If you have a dream, fight for it,” she continued. “There’s a discipline for passion, and it’s not about how many times you get rejected or you fall down or beaten up, it’s about how many times you stand up and are brave.” As might be expected, the Internet lost no time in making this heartwarming moment of support go viral, with Hudson’s encouragement of Gaga becoming the go-to meme of the 2019 Oscars. > [](https://twitter.com/Lindseykupfer/status/1099874407030444034) > [](https://twitter.com/%5Faj424%5F/status/1099894186310914054) > [](https://twitter.com/phillipethao/status/1099873860843945984) > [](https://twitter.com/sedasaygilii/status/1099875859123585024) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5537009/jennifer-hudson-oscars/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5537009/jennifer-hudson-oscars/"},"headline":"Jennifer Hudson's Oscars Reaction Meme Should Be Extremely Useful to You From Now On","datePublished":"2019-02-25T15:48:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:41.351Z","description":"A highlight of the 2019 Oscars","url":"https://time.com/5537009/jennifer-hudson-oscars/","keywords":["Newsfeed","awards","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf28e95f746d8127/698945d4096a9478026a4a5b/jennifer-hudson-oscars-meme.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf28e95f746d8127/698945d4096a9478026a4a5b/jennifer-hudson-oscars-meme.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-OSCARS-FAN-ARRIVALS","caption":"US-OSCARS-FAN-ARRIVALS","creditText":"Robyn Beck—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5537009/jennifer-hudson-oscars/","name":"Jennifer Hudson's Oscars Reaction Meme Should Be Extremely Useful to You From Now On"}}]}] ```