--- description: Find out why Jennifer Hudson is one of the 100 most influential people of 2020. title: Jennifer Hudson: The 100 Most Influential People of 2020 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0437f41ee52ea2e8/698a1255656a3f5c36bda826/time-100-Jennifer-Hudson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 22, 2020 # Jennifer Hudson by Mary J. Blige  Jennifer Hudson Jennifer HudsonDylan Coulter Ever since [Jennifer Hudson](https://time.com/5549164/jennifer-hudson-aretha-franklin-song/ "undefined") left [_American Idol_](https://time.com/4169319/american-idol-/ "undefined")without even winning and [went on to win an Oscar for _Dreamgirls_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvclyTi6UcA "undefined"), she’s been nothing but an inspiration to women of all generations in our culture. She’s a beautiful person, calm and humble, professional and reserved on set—like me. She brings raw talent to both the music and film industries. After filming _Respect_ with her last year, and watching the parts of [Aretha Franklin’s life](https://time.com/5365353/aretha-franklin-dies/ "undefined") that Jennifer is playing, I see [why Aretha chose](https://time.com/aretha-franklin-performs-rock-of-ages-at-the-new-bethel-baptist-church/#:~:text=Aretha%20Franklin%20was%20the%20first,the%20first%20in%20their%20field. "undefined") her for that role: she saw her younger self in Jennifer. Of course, she picked her for her powerful voice, but she also picked her for her personality—her quiet strength. Aretha had the same type of strength. Jennifer brings her whole self to everything she does. It’s a blessing. She has developed such an impressive career as a singer and actor because of her work ethic and her professionalism—and of course her talent. Every time I see her, I acknowledge how great she is. _Blige is a Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award–nominated singer, songwriter and actor_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888468/jennifer-hudson-artist/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888468/jennifer-hudson-artist/"},"headline":"Jennifer Hudson","datePublished":"2020-09-22T20:29:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:17.695Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888468/jennifer-hudson-artist/","keywords":["TIME 100","T100 2020","T100 2020 Artists"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0437f41ee52ea2e8/698a1255656a3f5c36bda826/time-100-Jennifer-Hudson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0437f41ee52ea2e8/698a1255656a3f5c36bda826/time-100-Jennifer-Hudson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"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":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888468/jennifer-hudson-artist/","name":"Jennifer Hudson"}}]}] ```