Oct 03, 2008  |  By: BUCK C. COOKE  | COMMENTS     

In “Dreamgirls,” Jennifer Hudson’s Effie White told us that she was not going, and on the singer’s debut album, which dropped Tuesday, she hopes fans and critics agree she deserves to stay in the spotlight.

Teaming up with some of the best names in music today (Timbaland and Ne-Yo start the list), Hudson’s eponymous CD features 13 tracks, and there is a lot of anticipation to go around.

“I know people have high expectations because of ‘Dreamgirls,’” Hudson says. “I didn’t have a particular concept in mind when I started working on the album. I wanted it to show flexibility and versatility.

“My voice has different characters, and I looked at each song as having different stories, since I’m an actress too,” she adds. “They’re all different — sassy, vulnerable, loud and obnoxious, dramatic, romantic, spiritual — and they’re all a part of me.”

After her Oscar-winning screen debut, Hudson is experiencing the downside of playing the diva-riffic White in “Dreamgirls.”

“It’s tricky,” she says, “because I played a character in her 30s in the movie, so the audiences heard me with more of an ‘adult’ voice. But I’m just 26, and I have a lot of other sides to show.”

Lead single “Spotlight” was produced by Stargate (Cher, Eve and Mis-Teeq) and written and co-produced by singer/songwriter/producer Ne-Yo (Beyoncé, Mary

J. Blige, Rihanna). The track describes how one side of a relationship always questions the state of affairs. It’s sung in what Hudson calls “the sarcastic voice.”

ON “WE GON’ FIGHT,” HUDSON tells the story of sticking to her guns in a relationship.

“In the song, everyone’s telling me to pretty much throw the towel in on a relationship, but this is a love that’s worth fighting for, an ‘us against the world’ kind of thing,” Hudson says.

Word has it that Hudson may have to start preparing to sing that song in her personal life, after she raised eyebrows this month announcing her engagement to David Otunga, better known as “Punk” from “I Love New York 2.”

Elsewhere on the album, Ludacris raps on “Pocketbook,” which was written and produced by hit-maker Timbaland. Hudson says the track is “very sassy, very much me. The song represents one side of my personality. This is something I would say — it has attitude, yet it’s playful.”

Despite her high-profile roles in “Dreamgirls” and “Sex and the City,” Hudson’s first love is singing.

“I knew all along I was going to sing for a living, that I was being prepared for something,” she says. “I sang at my great-grandmother’s 90th birthday, and the members of my family were like, ‘She doesn’t sound like a little girl!’ I didn’t realize what I could do.”

Obviously, she learned to harness her potential. She’s grown from a little girl at home imitating the likes of Whitney Houston to the diva we know and love today.

“Whitney was always there from when I was a child. I used to create my own little duets with her on ‘I Will Always Love You.’” 

With both singers on the Arista label, maybe that heavenly (and loud) duet will happen. In the meantime, though, Hudson is aware of how fortunate she is to have such a varied audience.

“So far, my career has been full of surprises and blessings, back to back,” she says. “I’m so fortunate to have an audience from ‘Idol’ and from ‘Dreamgirls’ — all ages, kids, grandmothers, gay, straight and all races.

“People may think they know what to expect from me, but I want to show them I’m more than just a one-trick pony when it comes to music,” Hudson says.