Jennifer Hudson is the newest EGOT member

Tonight, after winning a Tony Award for Best Musical as a member of the producing team of A Strange Loop, Jennifer Hudson is the newest member of the EGOT club.

The EGOT, a phrase coined Miami Vice‘s Philip Michael Thomas, represents earning the highest individual, competitive entertainment honors in the areas of television (Emmy), music (Grammy), film (Oscar) and theatre (Tony).

Hudson won her Oscar first, as Best Supporting Actress for 2008’s Dreamgirls. Her self-titled debut was released in 2008, landing at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and winning her her first Grammy, for Best R&B Album. She would pick up one more for Best Musical Theater Album as a cast member of 2017’s The Color Purple. Hudson first emerged in 2004 as a finalist on season three of television’s American Idol, where she famously, or infamously, came in seventh place.

Her Emmy came in the form of a 2021 Daytime Emmy win as a producer of Baba Yaga, which won for Outstanding Interactive Media for a Daytime Program. Her Tony win for A Strange Loop is her first nomination from the American Theatre Wing.

To date, only 17 people have received all four awards with Robert Lopez holding the records for having completed his in record time (10 years) and as the youngest ever (39 years, 7 days) at the time he won an Oscar for Best Original Song (“Let It Go,” from Frozen) in 2014.

John Legend became the first Black male to hit EGOT, completing the quartet of awards at the 2018 Emmys for producing Jesus Christ Superstar Live. Hudson is only the second Black female to achieve the status, after Whoopi Goldberg. At 40 years old, she is the third youngest to EGOT after Robert Lopez and Sir John Gielgud.