Fresh from releasing her new single “The Energy,” Lalah Hathaway brought her energy to The Jennifer Hudson Show on Monday. Host and fellow GRAMMY winner Jennifer Hudson welcomed Lalah while her new jam played in the background and the studio audience greeted her with a standing ovation.
The two singers showed each other big love from the get-go. “This woman is one of the greatest vocalists around,” Jennifer gushed about Lalah who responded with, “Same!” They then recollected when they first met and bonded over their Chicago roots.
During the interview, Lalah talked about her parents – her father, the legendary singer Donny Hathaway, and her mother, Eulaulah Hathway, whose name she shares. “When I stand up to sing and open my mouth, he’s always there,” she said of her dad who died when she was 10 but lives on in his music and her dreams.
Jennifer commented about how much she sounds like her father, but Lalah shared that she actually sounds like both of her parents. “I sound like my mom and my dad ’cause they made the box,” she said about the talent in her DNA and made sure to give her mother props. “My mother gets no credit at all, but my mom is a singer as well.”
Lalah spoke on her song “The Energy” and shared how she was inspired to create it during quarantine when she was really missing her hometown. “All the things about Chicago that I missed, this song really tries to capture that,” she said about her funky new jam.
JHud couldn’t let Lalah go without handing her a microphone to sing, of course. Lalah agreed but only if she joined her. After some cajoling, Jennifer acquiesced and leaned in to sing with Hathaway. They only harmonized together for a few seconds, but those seconds sounded better than some people’s whole albums.
That wasn’t enough for Hudson who encouraged Lalah to give the audience a little more and demonstrate her incredible polyphonic splitting technique where she harmonizes with herself. Lalah took hold of the mic and began to scat before she broke out with her infamous harmonizing and wowed JHud and her audience. The host hilariously tried to mimic her, but Lalah Hathaway showed she is truly one of a kind.
