Andra Day is paying tribute to Billie Holiday and the jazz singer’s life-changing effect on her. Her leading performance in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” has already earned Day a Golden Globe and an Oscar nod, but she’s thankful to Holiday for much more.
“I always loved this woman, she really helped me own who I am as an artist,” Day told Deadline. “She helped me to say ‘OK, my voice is worthy.’ God has just used her and her legacy very powerfully in my life,” she explained. “It was one of the things that would kill me when people would say [she] ‘wasted life.’ This couldn’t be further from the truth – she’s a hero.”
Day suggested that the “Strange Fruit” singer and civil rights activist was “just an activist by nature by doing what was right, what was fair.”
The Grammy-nominated “Rise Up” singer also addressed how the entertainment industry can move towards what’s right and fair — highlighting Black stories. She said that people are “realizing that their history was also kept from them.” She explained, “We never knew the truth about Billie Holiday fighting against racial terror, fighting against segregation. We didn’t know this because we weren’t supposed to know. So now the question is … what else is kept from us? When you start to ask that question, it’s a fucking lot.”
“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” is now streaming on Hulu. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks penned its script.
