Friday, April 22, 2011 12:34pm ET by  
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Jennifer Hudson inspired by Alicia Keys

Vocal superstar and actress Jennifer Hudson credits Grammy award-winning Alicia Keys for her ability to find the strength to turn her life's tragedies into songs she's proud of. 

Hudson suffered the devastating loss of not only her mother, but her brother and nephew when they were found shot dead in 2008 but revealed to the Daily Star that she was able to make songwriting into a cathartic process with Keys' help:

"I felt very inspired working with Alicia, who co-produced and co-wrote a lot of the album, along with R Kelly."

"Alicia told me I was an inspiration and we worked with that."

She added, honestly:

“What I like to do is bottle everything up from my ­experience and give it to someone else, so that was what we did."

Watch her recent performance of 'Where You At' on American Idol, below: