Jennifer Hudson: Singing is a therapy

CHICAGO (AP) — Jennifer Hudson says she has found getting back to work to be a healing force in her life.

“I’m just glad to be back and be back to work again. Just doing what I love to do is like therapy,” Hudson said recently on a live episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. “I’m in a very good place.”

In a brief interview, Hudson made no direct reference to the October slayings in Chicago of her mother, brother and nephew.

She performed her latest single, If This Isn’t Love, and promoted an upcoming tour with Robin Thicke, beginning March 31.

Hudson said Whitney Houston awarding her the Grammy for Best R&B Album for her self-titled debut CD “almost surpassed winning.”

“As soon as she stepped out on the stage, I lost it. That’s when I got emotional,” Hudson said of Houston. Hudson said she used to create duets with Houston’s records and dream about winning a Grammy.

Hudson said her fiance, David Otunga, is “working and making plans for us,” and she showed a snapshot of her three dogs, named Oscar, Grammy and Dreamgirl. Hudson’s supporting actress Oscar came for her role in Dreamgirls.

Was she nervous about singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl? Not Hudson, who said there “was too much going on for me to take it in” or to get nervous about her first public performance after the slayings.

Even the difficult final phrases of the national anthem didn’t throw her.

“To me, the biggest notes and the longest notes are the easiest notes,” she said. “It’s just like I’m glad that I made it to the end of the song. That’s how I am. OK, I got this now, I’m home. I’m going home now.”