Following the sudden death of Whitney Houston, producers of the Grammy Awards made the last-minute decision to invite Jennifer Hudson to pay tribute the legendary singer -- not only because of the singer's powerful vocals, but also because of her own personal experience dealing with tragedy.

In 2008 Hudson's mother, brother and nephew were all murdered while she was in the throes of promoting her self-titled debut album. After shunning the spotlight for a few months, the Chicago native triumphantly returned to the public eye at the 2009 Grammys. "Jennifer has had this experience herself in her own personal tragedy, " Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences told the press following the Grammy ceremony Sunday (Feb. 12). "Taking the stage in that moment, you sort of think maybe she can deal with what the emotions will be. Not every artist can do that."

Portnow praised Hudson for keeping it simple during her rendition of 'I Will Always Love You,' which was one of Houston's biggest hits. "When something like this happens what's great for me is I have the A-team that creatively figures these things out," Portnow said of the decision to choose Hudson. "We sat down and tried to figure out what we thought would be approrpiate. If this were a week [after Houston's death], there may have been a different approach. My thinking was simple, elegant, something that's uplifting, something that inspirational, and somethings that's healing [because] we're all hurting."
Chaka Khan was originally scheduled to share the stage with Hudson but was too grief-stricken to perform. During the touching performance, Hudson appeared to get emotional only briefly but held it together to complete the song. Today, Jennifer's grace and poise on the Grammy stage is being lauded as the pitch-perfect tribute to the fallen diva.