Jennifer Hudson’s New Song Is Going to Sound So Good Over the Aretha Biopic Credits

It’s Oscars 101: When you’re adapting a stage musical to the big screen, you write a new song for it, so that your film can be eligible for Best Original Song. When the strategy’s successful, you pull an Evita and rob “That Thing You Do!” of its rightful hardware. When it’s not, you’ve got a “Beautiful Ghosts” on your hands. Recently, this strategy has extended to biopics of real-life musicians. Leslie Odom Jr., who played Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami, was nominated this past year for co-writing and performing “Speak Now.” The year before that, Elton John and Bernie Taupin won the Oscar for a new song they wrote for John’s own Rocketman biopic. Now, Jennifer Hudson has released an original song called “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home),” which will be on the soundtrack of the upcoming Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect. Hudson, who plays the lead character, co-wrote the track with legendary singer-songwriter Carole King. The full strength of Hudson’s voice is on display in this song, which starts in pure gospel before opening up into a beautiful adult-contemporary-soul number. Will.i.am. produced the track, which you can listen to before the film’s release on August 13, 2021. It’s a shoo-in.