Jennifer Hudson doesn’t always get the material her prodigious voice deserves.

But that wasn’t the case Sunday to open the Super Bowl as she took on the National Anthem, a demanding warhorse that requires superior vocal chops to successfully navigate.

It was the 27-year-old Chicago native’s first public performance since the slaying of her mother, brother and nephew in their Englewood home on Oct. 24.

Teetering on high heels with a sober expression, she began and ended the performance with an audible sigh. In between, she was focused and in terrific voice. She began deliberately, then swung low to bring a chilling resonance to the word “gleaming.” Though she stretched a few notes, she didn’t oversell the song or her voice. She reveled in its power. The final “home of the brave” was a howitzer into the heavens.

Hudson announced she was back in dramatic fashion. Her heart has surely been broken by recent events, but her voice remains a rare instrument. And if anything, the tragedies in her life gave this performance an emotional lift that couldn’t be denied.

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