Fan Throws Shoe at Jennifer Hudson While She's Singing 'And I Am Telling You' — and Her Reaction Is Perfect
Jennifer Hudson has started a trend.
On Tuesday’s premiere of The Voice, the 36-year-old Grammy and Oscar winner kicked off her first season as a coach by giving the show one of its most memorable moments in 13 seasons. Moved by contestant Chris Weaver’s version of “Try a Little Tenderness,” Hudson took off a shoe and threw it right at the stage.
“Where I come from, that’s a compliment,” Hudson said on the show. “And we know at times when you sing like that, you better be prepared to what? Duck.”
The move was so iconic that at Hudson’s concert in Boston Friday, a band member did the same thing — this time to her while she was singing her Dreamgirls classic “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”
During a visit to Late Night with Seth Meyers that aired Friday, Hudson explained why she threw her shoe on The Voice.
“It is a compliment. At J Hud Productions, it is a compliment,” she said. “If you move me enough that I remove my shoe to throw it at you, you have done something amazing. It is equivalent to a standing ovation.”
A post shared by Jennifer Hudson (@iamjhud) on Sep 29, 2017 at 9:06pm PDT
“Music is so moving and powerful to me. It literally dictates my every emotion,” she continued. “I don’t even know I threw my shoe at you. If you close enough you might get hit but it’s a compliment. I am out of body. … ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to throw a shoe.’ But it’s just how the song moves me. Music moves me in a unique special way but it’s all out of passion and love. ”
Hudson also explained that she’s had shoes thrown her way in the past.
“I had an audition for a tour, Barry Manilow. I don’t know how many years ago that was. And I sang the song. And the people who I was auditioning for, I don’t know who they was, they literally threw everything at me off the desk. And I was just standing there like, ‘Oh my God,’ ” she recalled. “It was shoes, it was notebooks, it was pens, it was everything.’ They were like, ‘Girl, you betta sing.’ So when somebody’s singing for me, they might catch a shoe.”
The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays (8 p.m. ET) on NBC.
