SHINE LIKE A DIAMOND

Hugh Jackman on bonding with Kate Hudson over Neil Diamond - and doing karaoke with the man himself

- INTERVIEW: GILL PRINGLE

Hugh Jackman has been singing throughout his entire adult life, so he arguably wasn't prepared to meet his match in Kate Hudson, whose musical talents had been a secret before the release of her debut album, Glorious, in 2024.

Together, they perform duets in the film Song Sung Blue, based on the true story of two down-on-their-luck musicians who form a Neil Diamond tribute band, proving that it's never too late to find love and follow your dreams.

“We'd already bonded, but there was one day when they put a mic in front of us and recorded us. That's when I got the chills; that's when I knew that, musically, we would blend,” Hugh says of his costar, recalling how they transformed Neil's lesser-known 1969 song Holly Holy into an emotional powerhouse of a performance.

Kate feels the same. “The studio is a very vulnerable place because they're picking up everything of your voice. As an artist, you don't like certain things, but you have to try things. So it was a great entry point for us to be vulnerable with each other,” she says.

Inspired by Greg Kohs's 2008 documentary of the same name, the director Craig Brewer's Song Sung Blue introduces us to Mike and Claire Sardina, a working-class couple who have had tough lives but find love and salvation through performing together.

MAKING CONNECTIONS