Jennifer Hudson and the Democratic Party both have rich – but so far apart – stories with Sam Cooke’s classic song “A Change is Gonna Come.” The three came together at the end of the third night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention Wednesday night with a spectacular performance by Hudson that took place under the tiffany dome at the Harold Washington Cultural Center in the birthplace of Hudson, Chicago .
There were some great Aretha Franklin tie-ins in the performance of the woman who is about to be seen playing Franklin on film: Not only do they sing “the Aretha version” of the song, they was accompanied by two pianists: Fred Nelson, Franklin’s conductor, and Richard Gibbs, the soul queen’s pianist for many years. Reginald Foster ran her backing trio out on soprano sax.
Hudson’s carpet version was seen right after Kamala Harris’ historic acceptance speech as the first woman of color nominated by a major party for vice president. Or not seen, because many networks cut it out to throw to the connoisseurs. But if Brian Williams or Anderson Cooper made a mistake, you can still catch it here.
Hudson previously received a lot of social media traction for delivering a knockout version of it at the 2019 AFI Awards, singing it for honoree Denzel Washington. (The song played a major role in one of Washington’s movies, “Malcolm X.”) However, most fans probably think this one is going to come up short.
Also of note: the Chicago Cultural Center is the first place Hudson has ever performed for Barack Obama.
Hudson had a role in the 2008 Democratic convention, where she sang “The Star Spangled Banner” the year Obama accepted his nomination.
Meanwhile, the lyrics of ‘A change is gonna come’ were quoted in his victory speech after winning the election. At his inauguration months later, Bettye LaVette and Jon Bon Jovi sang the Cooke song as a duet.
This is not the first time Hudson has sung for Joe Biden as a candidate: She sang in June at a virtual lender for him, along with other stars such as Barbra Streisand, John Legend and Andra Day.
