Is LaKisha The New Jennifer Hudson?

The comparison was inescapable. At the close of the Feb. 21 American Idol broadcast, LaKisha Jones blew the other female contestants away with a powerhouse rendition of "And I Am Telling You, I'm Not Going" — the signature Dreamgirls song for Jennifer Hudson, who rode her 2004 appearance in the Idol finals all the way to an Oscar for best supporting actress! Even judge Randy Jackson was moved to shriek, "Jennifer Hudson, watch out!"

It's now obvious that LaKisha, 27, shares more with Jennifer, 25, than just a womanly plus-size frame. Like Chicago-native Hudson, who says her late grandmother, Julia Kate Hudson, was her inspiration, Jones calls her grandma, Ruth Morris, "my idol."

And like Jennifer, LaKisha's impressive pipes were honed as a youngster in the church choir — in her case, the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in her hometown of Flint, Mich.

"LaKisha always had that power," hometown friend Emerson Jones tells Star. "When she sang, she could stop an entire room. In high school, we were in the a cappella choir and vocal ensemble group competitions. But her voice wasn't as mature as it is now. On Idol, it almost brought me to tears!"

LIFE CHANGES
After graduating from Flint's Central High School in 1998, Jones briefly studied voice at the University of Michigan-Flint before dropping out and having daughter Brionne, 4, in 2003. As a single mom, she moved to Fort Meade, Md., and worked in a bank, though she recently moved back to Flint. But based on her early Idol performances, she may soon be calling Los Angeles home for the foreseeable future.

"This is a new LaKisha on Idol," raves her friend Emerson Jones. "Before, she never really pushed herself out in front of everyone, in the spotlight. She was part of the group, but not a topic of conversation. Now, she is the conversation!"

— SUZANNE ROZDEBA & ALEX BURTON