Jennifer Hudson moved Michelle Obama to tears at the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Thursday, 18 June, delivering a performance of The Impossible Dream that left the former first lady reaching for a tissue.
Hudson, a Chicago native and EGOT recipient, appeared dressed in all white to perform the National Anthem before launching into the show-stopping ballad, originally written for the 1965 Broadway musical Man of La Mancha.
PEOPLE reported that Michelle Obama, seated alongside former President Barack Obama and their daughters, who made a rare public appearance for the occasion, was visibly moved as Hudson finished the song.
It was not the first time this week that emotions ran high at the landmark celebrations.
On Wednesday evening, Barack Obama got teary-eyed at a special reception after being surprised by a portrait of his late mother-in-law Marian Robinson, which appeared on Michelle’s skirt.
Michelle herself acknowledged the mood later in Thursday’s ceremony.
“Well, my goodness, I got my tissue in hand. I don’t know about all of you,” she said after being introduced by Addison Bellone, a college student from Chicago’s South Side whom the former first lady had mentored.
Hudson’s performance was the emotional centrepiece of an extraordinary night of music.
The star-studded lineup also included John Legend, Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Bruce Springsteen, U2’s Bono and The Edge, Eddie Vedder, Marc Anthony, Tems, Common and The Roots, all performing before a crowd of former presidents, Obama administration alumni, celebrities and politicians gathered to mark the opening of the centre more than nine years after the Obamas left the White House.
Hudson has a particular connection to The Impossible Dream, having performed it at the 2009 NAACP Image Awards as a tribute to Muhammad Ali.
On Thursday night, it found an equally powerful moment.
