Dreamgirls star Jennifer Hudson has recruited India.Arie and Alicia Keys as mentors as she plans to embark on a pop career.
The Oscar winner and former American Idol favourite hopes to release her first album after her new film Sex + The City hits cinemas next month (Jun08) and she has turned to two peers for advice.

Hudson asked her Secret Life of Bees co-star Keys for help when she realised she had been working on her debut for a year.
She says, “I didn’t realise the process would be so long. I’m discovering it as I go along.

“Alicia Keys was one of the people who talked to me about it. I wanted to make sure it was OK because it’s taking so long.
“She told me it took her at least a year to record her album and that’s the process, so don’t worry about it.”

And she turned to Arie when she needed a big hit on the album: “Greatest Creation, which Indie.Arie wrote, is where I see myself and where I’d like to see myself, in saying that my greatest creation is me.”
Hudson will release the album in September (08), admitting “I haven’t named it yet.”