“Neither of us won American Idol, and look at us now,” Hudson told Lambert after their duet performance of “Nessun dorma” alongside former Idol pianist Michael Orland on The Jennifer Hudson Show
Two of the strongest vocalists in American Idol history have joined forces for an impressive duet!
In a clip from Wednesday’s episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show, Adam Lambert and host Jennifer Hudson bonded over their shared love for “Nessun dorma,” a well-known song from Giacomo Puccini’s classic opera Turandot, before performing the song alongside a pianist they both worked with on Idol.
During Lambert’s interview with Hudson, the “Whataya Want from Me” musician, 40, spoke about his opera background. “I took opera in high school for like a year. It’s like for a dancer to take ballet — it’s really good training. It was very educational, and that was there, and I left it there,” he said.
He then recalled performing “Nessun dorma” alongside Queen during one of their tour stops in Italy last summer: “I don’t know why, but the song just popped into my head because I was in Italy, and I was singing it to myself.”
Lambert continued, “Brian [May] heard me, and he goes, ‘Oh, you know that song?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know that song!’ So, I just started singing it impromptu in rehearsal, and he just started playing and accompanying me. It was this moment that happened, and we all said, ‘Let’s just do it tonight.’”
Hudson, 41, proposed a duet performance, and the two vocalists walked over to a piano — where Michael Orland, former American Idol pianist, arranger, vocal coach and associate musical director was seated.
“He taught us a lot of the music and the songs we got to sing,” said the EGOT holder. “We share a lot of the same experiences, so since we’ve got Michael here, and Adam, and we both know ‘Nessun dorma,’ we gotta give you a little bit of something.”
After Lambert joked that he “should’ve warmed up,” the pair began crooning the song’s intricate melody, which later prompted him to exclaim, “This key is really high!”
The Respect actress and talk show host praised Lambert’s singing skills following the performance: “The range on this man is insane.”
Hudson explained, “When you do opera songs — any song — and you’ve got two ranges, a male vocalist and a female vocalist, it’s almost impossible to sing the song in the same key. But the way you got up there, only you could do something like that. Y’all need to give this man some credit.”