Golden Globe nominee Andra Day talks to us about her new movie The United States vs. Billie Holiday and why this story of a defiant music legend is so relevant today. 

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW:

  1. Taking place in the 1940s, the government targets the legendary blues singer Billie Holiday to racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial song, Strange Fruit. The movie follows her career, battle with drugs and alcohol, and an undercover sting operation led by Black Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she had a tumultuous affair.
  2. Day is nominated for two Golden Globe awards. First for Outstanding Lead Actress in a drama and another for co-writing the song "Tigress & Tweed." She is an American singer, songwriter, and actress from San Diego, California. Her debut album, Cheers to the Fall, was released in 2015. At the 2016 Grammy Awards, the album was nominated for Best R&B Album, and the album's main single, Rise Up, was nominated for Best R&B Performance. Day also appeared alongside Stevie Wonder, who is partially credited for her discovery, in an ad for Apple TV in late 2015. 
  3. This is her second big-screen appearance, playing a nightclub singer in 2017's Marshall. She was also the voice of Sweet Tea in Cars 3. Day said being nominated is "a blessing. It just makes me love my cast, Lee [Daniels], and experience this movie and makes me even more grateful to God. I'm always going to be but definitely appreciative. It just reminds me if you have faith and you put in the work, and when your dealing with people and conduct yourself with integrity and love and care and the desire for everybody in the space to be seen and to win, I think the space matters and the work matters, the character matters."
  4. Billie Holiday was an American jazz and swing music singer with a career spanning 26 years. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz and pop music. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills. Day said, "it's extremely motivating to realize that this woman who was so broken and so much that happened to her was not a victim in her mind and fought so furious, and fearlessly. I don't want to say fearlessly, but overcame her fears and continues to get this message out there and so inspired." 
  5. Holiday was a successful concert performer throughout the 1950s with two sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall. Because of personal struggles and an altered voice, her final recordings were met with mixed-reaction but received mild commercial success. Her final album, Lady in Satin, was released in 1958. Holiday died of cirrhosis on July 17, 1959, at age 44. She won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973.