Jennifer Hudson Talks Reuniting With ‘Christmas Angels’ Mariah Carey & Ariana Grande

Jennifer Hudson, Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande finally got to sing their holiday collaboration live together for the first time. And on the latest episode of her talk show, J-Hud reported back to her audience about the whole experience.

“This is a season full of surprises, y’all,” Hudson said on Tuesday’s (Dec. 12) episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show. “Miss Mariah Carey, she’s always coming up with big great ideas. And she came up with the idea that her Christmas angels, which is Ariana Grande and myself, be a surprise for her Madison Square Garden performance.”

The reunion went down Friday (Dec. 9) at Madison Square, where Carey hosted her final Merry Christmas One and All! show. The three hadn’t gotten together since shooting the music video in 2020 for their version of “Oh Santa!,” a remix of Carey’s original solo track from her 2010 album Merry Christmas II You.

“Nobody knew we were coming,” Hudson continued. “It was so fun, it was like a reunion for all of us… It felt like being with family. It felt like Christmas!”

The “Spotlight” singer also showed off the pearl necklace she and Grande were gifted by Carey, adding: “The crowd, when I say they went crazy — I’m still getting tags on Instagram from that performance.”

Carey recently appeared on Hudson’s show to chat about their shared love for the holidays, with the former superstar revealing that Nat King Cole’s version of “The Christmas Song” is her “favorite all-time Christmas song.” At the time of publication, her 1994 smash “All I Want for Christmas” ranks No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, following close behind Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

Watch Jennifer Hudson recount her Merry Christmas One and All! performance below.