Image Credit: Barry Brecheisen/WireImage.comJennifer Hudson has released the first single, “Where You At,” from her new album, and how you react to it depends on who you are. If you’re a grammarian or English teacher, it will annoy you. (Sidenote: Can we all agree to stop ending song titles—and certain choruses, Ms. Keys—with prepositions?) If you’re a diehard J. Hud fan, it’s exactly what you expect from her, and it will thrill you—especially the money note at 2 minutes 48 seconds. Very very impressive stuff.
If you don’t fall in either category, you’ll likely find it to be an OK, albeit dated piece of R&B that would reside comfortably on a Whitney Houston CD from the late ’80s or early ’90s. The lyrics, too, don’t exactly break new ground—J. Hud is waiting in the rain, waiting in the cold, and an unreliable cad never shows up:
Hudson’s full album, I Remember Me, is due out on March 22. What do you think of this single? What type of songs would you like to hear on her album? And while we’re fondly remembering late-80s, early-90s R&B for a moment, what song would you most like to hear J. Hud cover? I’m going to go with “Unbreak My Heart.”
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Well this is disappointing. This song is really dated and uninteresting. I was hoping for better.
she’s awesome. song stinks.
Beautiful lyrics, beautiful melody. I love the song.
She’s got a monkey face.
Jennifer Hudson is beautiful.
At the same time I hate the idea of her attempting to match the vocal stylings of someone like, say, Rihanna. J-Hud simply is in the wrong generation. She totally belonged in the 90s and I would prefer her to use her voice in the way it was meant to be used instead of dumbing herself down to sell records. Of course none of this excuses the ridiculata of the title…
Your comment is on-point! She would have ruled the 80s and 90s and would be recognized as an icon by now.
Very good point. Except divas like Mariah and Celine weren’t fugly as hell. JPudge has the kind of face you want to crap on.
Jeinnifer is not ugly, ok stop the hate
I disagree! J Hud is exactly where she needs to be. Its gotten to the point where you barely need any talent at all to be called a “singer” or “music artist”…Its a breath of fresh air to hear someone with true talent and skill to produce what is truly called music. Dont get me wrong, when i want to bop my head and 2 step in the club-rihanna and others will do it, but when i want to hear true music with substance, i appreciate J. Hud and other like her!
I have not see are hear anything disappointing about Jennifer Hudson. People stop trying to HATE. Jhud is the real deal hands down!
That you Charles. They are trying to put her here and put her there. But Jennifer Hudson is a singer that sing from her soul.
JDud has the face of a baboon.
you’re an idiot.
a big idiot
JH could sing phonebook, but who’d want to listen to that.
Get some better producers.
WELL SAID!
J HUD is amazing. I am not one to normally buy an album the day (or even the week) it drops…but in this case, I’ll make an exception. Would also like her on the small screen…get her that Emmy to get her closer to her EGOT!
Ending a sentence with “at” is a sign of being uneducated.
Agreed. English is my 3rd language & I’m still a work in progress when it comes to grammar. My 5th grade English teacher would roll over in her grave if she sees what’s going on today. Enough with “where you at?” and “Immalet” already!
Don’t be ridiculous. Music isn’t an English class. What did you expect the song to be “Where are you at”? It doesn’t flow.
LOL – no, more like, “Where are you?” That flows.
To Um: While I agree with you to an extent, there are plenty of times when grammar is wrong and there’s no reason it should be (songs that have “was” when it should be “were,” just one example). And, at times, incorrect grammar negates the message of the sing. Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” for example. She says, “I could care less what you think.” Well, that implies that she does, in fact, care what the guy thinks, which goes against the entire song.
Are you implying that Cole Porter and George Gershwin should be considered uneducated? Or is it only current popular music?
I have to agree with this whole preposition thing. Incorrect grammar in songs annoys the hell out of me. I can at least understand it if it’s for the purposes of rhyming or number of syllables, but otherwise it makes Americans sound dumb.
The that bothers me the most is that annoying G-6 song: “Sober girls around they be ackin like they drunk.” I mean – Just look at that sentence! Can you even COUNT the number of things wrong with it? And WTF is “Ackin?”
I freaking hate that song, so awful, and on top of everything else they are practically telling you to get smashed and go driving!
Now this is what American Idol needs…another Jennifer Hudson!!!!! Who cares about these other changes. Just stop text voting and get a Jennifer Hudson contestant. I’m still in shock that she came in at seventh place. She is amazing!!!!!
have an all star season: Jhud, fantasia, lambert, clarkson, dcook, underwood…hmmm… who else? that would kinda rock…
I agree! I would love that!
I hate song titles like this too. Where You At? Whatchu Been At? How You Been Whatchu At? No wonder kids are as stupid as they are now.
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!! How You Been Whatchu At??? Nathan, I literally just let out a roar of laughter on that one.
I am more bothered by the fact that the verb is missing from the sentence. Where you at? Clearly not as school since your sentence is all kinds of wrong. I would rather it said where are you instead of such bad butchering of the English language.
Clearly not at school…
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!! You made me spill my soda.
I know really. Seriously these people need to calm down. It’s a song, not an essay.
News flash — It is not correct to end a sentence with a preposition. It never has been. It may not be ideal, but it’s not incorrect.
What is incorrect, however, is the absence of the word “are” (as in, Where Are You At). But I guess that would sound even more stupid, if possible.
Of course, “Where are you ” would have the same number of words and syllables and thus would have fit the music JUST AS WELL!
Actually, the politically correct usage depends on the preposition and the specific phrase. The example, “where are you at?” is colloquially acceptable but grammatically incorrect. Regardless, I agree that the missing verb is the more serious problem here.
News flash – Reread your own confusing post. First you say “it is not correct” and then you say “it’s not incorrect.” Contradicting yourself a bit… Typos occur, but when you’re trying to make a grammatical point, you’ve got to do better than this confusing trainwreck.
This is what I was afraid of, she didn’t just lost a lot of pounds, she lost a big piece of her X factor too.
No darling! She wasn’t on X Factor, she was on American Idol…so just say she lost her Idol factor.
big time(:
Miss Talk didn’t say she lost her X Factor…she said X factor. Small f. Someone having the “X factor” is a saying that was around before the show started. That’s where they got the name from.
Incredible! I love this song. My girl Jhud is shining like a light through and through. Love love love her vocals.
Music is music,verb or no verb n anyway who cares!JH is talented,she entertain u guyz with her singing of course.stp complaning
Music is music,verb or no verb n anyway who cares JH is talented she entertain u guyz with her singing of course.stp complaning
Only pretentious grammarians get upset about ending phrases with prepositions. It’s been shown that many literary greats have a habit of doing it. Thinking that it is incorrect is a fallacy perpetuated by elitists.
I remember when “ain’t” was heavily used and sang in verses and song titles on hit records in 1981. That word was used all over that year and nobody from the grammar department that year pointed that out. We just kept listening to the music instead.
Not a fallacy, and it’s perpetuated by grammar textbooks.
Actually it’s not. Perhaps by style books – but not grammar textbooks. It is not GRAMMATICALLY incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition, it is considered ugly writing. But as pointed out already, it is not a question of grammar. Grammar is almost mathematical, like verb conjugations. STYLE is a lot more subjective. For example, it is against some style guides to start a sentence with But or And (and even that is archaic) but not against ANY grammar guide.
Good comment Rush.
Agreed. Also, if you were to rewrite the sentence by moving the position of the preposition, you would get ‘At where are you?” which makes no sense. That is because the very use of ‘at’ is a redundancy, much like saying “Where is the venue” instead of the correct “What is the venue”. In such cases you have to go with the colloquial phrase and not try to make a supposedly grammar oriented point. Otherwise stop saying I’m in, What’s up, What’s going on.
Is this the kind of song one of the best singers in the country is getting to record?? It sounds old and Jennifer is still young …sad
I like Jennifer’s new song. She just sounds good on anything. Her voice just pierces out and just grabs you the moment you hear it. I think this title just fits with the words and story of the song, regardless of it ending in a preposition. Hundreds of songs in the past and the present have ended in prepositions. Sometimes that’s what the songwriter is thinking at the moment when they title their songs in that approach.