by ELOISE PARKER

NOT many people get the satisfaction of proving Simon Cowell wrong, but it looks like Jennifer Hudson is one of the lucky ones.

The 25-year-old singer remembers sitting backstage just before being voted off American Idol in 2004, when Simon told her bluntly: "You only get one chance at it, and the people who don't win will never be seen again".

Now, having scooped a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role alongside Eddie Murphy and Beyonce Knowles in Dreamgirls, Jennifer's career is surpassing those of American Idol's previous winners, and Simon is finally eating his words.

"I did American Idol for the experience. I like to do things just to say I did it'," she smiles, saying it wasn't the first setback she overcame on her route to success.

"I started singing in church in Chicago at the age of seven, but they would never give me a solo song," Jennifer says.

As a teenager, struggling with her weight at 16 stone, she was turned down to sing in a talent contest with a group of thinner girls.

"They didn't want to pick me," recalls the 5ft 9in songstress who, despite having slimmed down to a size 14, maintains that she has no desire "to be a size two or four" in the image-obsessed world of Hollywood.

Loosely based on the story of the Supremes, Jennifer's Dreamgirls character was inspired by Florence Ballard, who was dropped from the original Supremes line-up in 1967 after Diana Ross took her place.

Jennifer says the acting was a challenge, as Florence ages by almost 20 years and has a child during the course of the film.

With her meteoric rise to fame since Dreamgirls opened in cinemas across the US in December, Jennifer says her life has changed completely.

"Nothing's the same. All of a sudden, I can't go anywhere," she says. "It's a big deal when I step out of the house. I'm like, but it's just me."

Still living in Chicago, she says has the support of her close-knit family and her boyfriend of seven years, engineer James Peyton.

"We balance each other out," smiles Jennifer. "He's very quiet and I'm very loud."

She also has the advice of her co-stars to fall back on, saying Beyonce told her to make smart decisions and "be patient" with her career, while Jamie Foxx told her to "always give everything 100 per cent".

With mounting buzz for an Oscar win this month, it looks like Jennifer will have plenty of opportunity to put the advice to good use.

Click here to read our review of Dreamgirls (12A).