Andra Day won the coveted Best Actress award at last night’s Golden Globes for her stunning lead performance in the ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’. Day becomes the first black actress to win the award since Whoopi Goldberg earned the title back in 1986 for her role in ‘The Color Purple’
Now among the favourites to win Best Actress at the Oscars in April, Andra Day’s momentum will continue at next weekend’s Critics’ Choice Awards, where she’s nominated for Best Actress and Best Original Song for ‘Tigress & Tweed’. Co-written by Day and Raphael Saadiq, the piano-driven showstopper is one of the highlights of the soundtrack, which brims with Day’s soul-stirring versions of Holiday’s classics as well as some brand new compositions. Listen to the soundtrack here.
In her acceptance speech, Day credited “the amazing, transformative, dynamic Billie Holiday, who just transformed me with this role with her presence and her spirit.”
‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’ sheds light on the innovative vocalist’s embattled years as a target of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The unit sought to imprison Holiday on drug charges, a retaliatory action given her dedication to singing highly politicized songs like ‘Strange Fruit’ and her efforts to integrate her audiences. Andra stars alongside ‘Moonlight’ lead Trevante Rhodes in the biopic, which was directed by Lee Daniels (‘Precious’, ‘Empire’) and written by Pulitzer winner Suzan-Lori Parks. The film is now available as a Sky Original. Watch the trailer here.
The three-time Grammy nominee Andra Day is best known for her 2016 Grammy-nominated behemoth ‘Rise Up’, which has amassed a billion streams and reached RIAA triple-Platinum certification. She has shared the stage with everyone from Stevie Wonder and the Obamas to Nick Jonas and Alicia Keys.
Andra Day’s rising profile was also recently boosted in the UK, when Joss Stone won the final of ITV’s ‘The Masked Singer’ with her performance of ‘Rise Up’. It proved to be one of the biggest TV moments of the year, reaching a peak audience of 10.6 million.
