"Spotlight" by Jennifer Hudson

Nicole Brittain
Essay draft 1
Song: "Spotlight" by Jennifer Hudson
Lyrics link: http://www.metrolyrics.com/spotlight-lyrics-jennifer-hudson.html
Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ojza4LcC-4

Prisoner of Love

Jennifer Hudson is a well known female vocalist. She broke into the mainstream of music after her success on “American Idol” (2004). Her debut album has topped the Billboard Music charts. Along with being an accomplished musician, she has also gone on to star in movies. She has won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her role in the movie “Dream Girls.
In 2007, she released her hit single “Spotlight”. In the song, Jennifer starts out addressing her man. She asks him if he truly loves her.
“Are you a man who loves and cherishes and cares for me?”
This use of direct questioning automatically grabs your attention. Perhaps the men listening start to think of the woman in their life.
If the first line gives the impression that the song will be sweet, the next line gets into the true meat and potatoes of the tune.
“Are you a guard in a prison maximum security?”
Jennifer asks this question to get to the basis of what her song is about. She is a strong woman in a suffocating, controlling relationship. She does not want to be “ locked away out of fear that [she’ll] find someone else”
“Do we stay home all the time cause you want me to yourself?”
Jennifer uses the catchy repetition of the question , “Is that you, is that you…?” as sort of a background line in the song.
In the chorus, Ms. Hudson makes a stand. Loud and proud she sing to her beau.
“I don’t like, living under your spotlight, just because you think I might, find somebody worthy..”
She then says that if he would just do the right thing, love her freely and let her live, she will do the right thing. She wants to be with him, but she wants it to be her own free will. She doesn’t want to be a “Prisoner of his love.
“Baby if you treat me right you don’t have to worry.”
She gives the her ultimatum to the man she is writing for,
“If this love, real real love then I’m staying, no doubt, But if I’m just loves prisoner then Im busting out” She wants him to love her right, if not she’s leaving.
The video for the song “Spotlight” helps convey the emotion and strength felt in the song. The mini skit starts out with Jennifer on the phone with her girlfriend. She is complaining about being “smothered” by her boyfriend. Her girlfriend tells her to just get on her shoes and go out! Just then her boyfriend calls on the other line to see where she is and ask why she hasn’t called all day.
She tells him she will call him back. Instead of calling though, Jennifer puts on her boots and goes out to the club. The majority of the video is then focused on Jennifer singing her song. Towards the end, her man shows up at the club. She takes him into a room where she makes her final stand to him.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, what do you think you’re doing?”
“Loving me, loving me so wrong..”.
She pulls her man into her as if she’s going to kiss him. She then pushes him away. It seems as though she’s saying, “I love you, but let me love you rather than make me.”
The final verse of the song is the bottom line of what she wants her boyfriend to know.
“…All I do is try to show you that you’re my one and only guy, no matter who may come along…”.
What I gathered from reading listening to this song, is a sense of feminine strength in a relationship. Perhaps Jennifer felt objectified by her boyfriend, rather than human. I think the fact that she is an artist very much in the real life “spotlight”, is an irony. The song leaves you wondering what would become of their relationship had it been true?