Jennifer Hudson was chosen to give the tribute to Whitney Houston at last night’s Grammy Awards, after the 48 year old singer passed suddenly on Saturday.

It was an apt choice by Grammy bosses, as back in 2007, the Dreamgirls star admitted that the Bodyguard actress was one of her biggest inspirations and the person she would most like to duet with.

Last night Jen ended the ‘In Memoriam’ segment of the cereminy, when she gave a rousing and very emotional rendition of Whitney’s number one Grammy award winning single ‘I Will Always Love You’.

At the end of the song, she included the line “Whitney, we will always love you” and emotionally blew kisses to a large screen, which was showing iconic images of Houston and other stars, who have passed away this year.

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It was claimed that Hudson broke down repeatedly in rehearsals for the performance and struggled to get through the song before the main ceremony.

Host LL Cool J admitted that he and organisers had struggled with how to mark Whitney’s passing appropriately, saying:

“We were up all night, and we just wanted to figure out and show Whitney Houston the love, the appreciation, the love, the respect she deserves based on her as a human being and the career that she had and give her that love and make sure that people know we care.”

Grammy Awards executive producer Ken Ehrlich added: “It’s too fresh in everyone’s memory to do more at this time, but we would be remiss if we didn’t recognise Whitney’s remarkable contribution to music fans in general, and in particular her close ties with the Grammy telecast and her Grammy wins and nominations over the years.”

Whitney performed the same song herself, back in the 1994 Grammy Awards and you can watch the video below.