{blackbabes} Jennifer Hudson's new life should be one to 'Remember'

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BEVERLY HILLS — When Jennifer Hudson sings about a new dawn, a new day, a new life on Feeling Good, she's not just weighing in on her recently slenderized physique. She's proclaiming her renewal of hope and purpose, innate traits threatened in recent years by family tragedy.

The Nina Simone signature tune, one of a dozen soulful, optimistic tracks on new album I Remember Me, is also the campaign theme in her TV ads for Weight Watchers, the program that helped her shed 80 pounds.

Feeling Good "is a perfect fit," Hudson says after arriving at the Four Seasons lounge following an after-lunch walk in flats and a short, snug skirt that emphasizes her hourglass shape. "I felt it could package up my weight-loss journey. And it's so me. In my 29 years, I've lived four different lives. Nothing today is related to my life 10 years ago other than the scar on my hand and my voice. That's all that's left to identify myself."

I Remember Me arrives Tuesday with emotional, faith-infused songs reflecting the sunny but steely disposition that saw her through metronomic swings of fortune.

She made the finals on 2004's American Idol and won an Oscar and Golden Globe for her acting debut in 2006's Dreamgirls, then left the spotlight in late 2008 to mourn the loss of her murdered mother, brother and nephew. Today, she's a blissfully engaged mom garnering raves for her sophomore album, starring in upcoming biopic Winnie and seducing fashion photographers. It isn't just a new day. It's a fairy tale, she says.

"It would be greedy to ask for more," Hudson says. "I'm grateful for everything that's happened. I want to be healthy and happy. I want to be around to sing and act for decades. I want longevity."

She's poised for it, says Billboard senior editor Gail Mitchell, who sees Hudson as a likely successor to Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston.

"If this album is any indication, she's here for the long haul," Mitchell says. "Jennifer has the potential to be the voice people are looking for. And this album gives us a chance to know who she really is. She came back on solid footing. Everyone loves a story where the underdog wins."

Even as a loser, Hudson felt like a winner. Someone less plucky might have been discouraged by a seventh-place finish on Idol, but she exited without a tear, vowing a return to the national stage.

"I just knew I was going to have to sing my way through," says Hudson, who will perform on Idol Thursday. "My mother used to tell me, 'You always seem to find the positive in everything.' No matter what you're going through, you can find a lesson that helps you grow and makes you a better person."

She was definitely not going

Her ticket back was the Dreamgirls role of Effie White and the musical's showstopping And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going. Momentum grew with 2008's warmly received self-titled 2008 debut; it opened at No. 2 in Billboard and won a Grammy for best R&B album.

Though she was proud of the effort, it wasn't her best, Hudson says, calling it "a stab in the dark. Nobody really knew where I belonged. This time, I know."

Clive Davis, chief creative officer at Sony Music Entertainment, says co-producing I Remember Me entailed walking a fine line between unfurling Hudson's traditional strapping R&B style and catering to a marketplace driven by rhythmic dance hits.

"This is not an era of showcasing great voices," Davis says. "In approaching Jennifer's career, you don't want to fit in. Obviously, you want radio exposure, but you have to be true to her natural and organic talent. It's tricky, there's no question."

Customized songs from admiring contributors proved crucial, Davis says, noting that collaborators weren't drafted. Nearly 75 songwriters volunteered.

The title track, based on a poem by Hudson, is her only writing credit, yet the songs are tailored to express her path and personality. R&B singer Alicia Keys, who wrote Angel and co-wrote Don't Look Down and Everybody Needs Love, aimed to capture the humility and strength at Hudson's core.

"She told me, 'You're an inspiration to people,' " Hudson says. "I don't fully get how I'm perceived."

R. Kelly wrote and produced feisty single Where You At after plastering his house with photos of Hudson. "He's just a genius," Hudson says. "He hit it on the head in so many ways. How did he channel me?"

Hitting even closer to home are Believe, the gospel song Hudson sang on last May's Brooks & Dunn farewell tribute on CBS, and Diane Warren's Still Here, left over from sessions for her debut.

"Believe reminded me of songs we heard and sang in church growing up," says the South Side Chicago native. "It's a reflection of where I come from. The greatest gift my grandmother and mother gave me was bringing us up in church.

"Still Here was originally dedicated to my grandmother. Now it relates to my whole family. It's a way to remember them and keep them in my life."

While Hudson slowly warms to the topic of lost loved ones, she declines to discuss the October 2008 shooting deaths of her 57-year-old mother, 29-year-old brother and 7-year-old nephew. Her sister's estranged husband was charged with the murders. Hudson retreated for three months, emerging to sing The Star-Spangled Bannerat the 2009 Super Bowl (a performance she found less stressful than any of the seven times she sang before President Obama).

"My mother always said I did well under pressure," Hudson says with a laugh. "(She was) so wise and strong. I can count on one hand how many times I saw her crying. She always said, 'You think you've seen it all? Just keep living.' Thinking about everything I've been through, wow, my mama saw it coming. I hear her in my head every day."

Hudson didn't hesitate to accept the Super Bowl invitation, but when a director approached her about a film role soon after the tragedy, she passed.

"I said, 'I don't know how to be anybody else right now because I have to figure out who I am.' But music is home. It's therapy. So of course I'm going to go back to that. I could hear my brother saying, 'Jenny, knock it off. You got to keep going.' ... I try to do the things I know my mother and brother would be proud of."

Hudson credits faith and family for grounding her. She and fiancé David Otunga, a WWE wrestler and Harvard Law grad, are parents to 19-month-old David Daniel, and she'd like to adopt another child. She also dotes on her Pomeranians Oscar, Grammy and Dream (after Dreamgirls).

'I was content with myself'

Childbirth and preparation for the role of apartheid-era figure Winnie Mandela prompted Hudson's decision to pare pounds from her 5-foot-9 frame.

"During my pregnancy, nobody knew I was pregnant," says Hudson, a Weight Watchers spokeswoman since April 2010. "Oh, so I looked pregnant before? Now I make sure whatever I wear has shape to it."

In a matter of months, Hudson went from plus-size to red-carpet catnip, turning heads at the Oscars in a revealing tangerine Versace gown that had fashionistas pitting her against beauty icon Halle Berry.

"I was tripping at the Grammys when I was compared to Jennifer Lopez," she says. "But Halle Berry? Are you serious?"

The va-va-voom overhaul didn't affect her self-image.

"I was content with myself," she says. But now "I sit up at night and figure out what I'm going to wear the next day. Before, you couldn't pay me to wear heels. Now I'm in them all the time. I always loved shopping but it's even more fun now. And it's great exercise. I'm power-walking on Michigan Avenue."

Losing weight for Winnie was the least demanding aspect of the film. She slept for days in a South African jail cell to get a sense of Mandela's imprisonment.

On location, she was separated from her son, too young then for vaccinations. And the role of a controversial icon intimidated her.

"I was an African-American girl, and I didn't know about this person who had a huge impact on the world," Hudson says. "It's the hardest thing I've ever done."

Just as I Remember Me enhances her credentials in the music world, the title role in Winnie positions her for advancement in Hollywood. Hudson squirms at the notion of rising celebrity.

"It could easily have been someone else," she says. "I've been singing all my life. What's the difference now? I'm the same girl from American Idol, and everyone knows it."