Andra Day | Entertainment News, Photos, and Videos

Andra Day brought us to tears with her reaction to winning the 2021 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her work in the title role in The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

When the 36-year-old actress and singer’s name was called as the winner, she became so emotional in a very sweet, happy moment.

“I’m in the presence of giants with Viola Davis, Frances McDormand, Vanessa Kirby and Carey Mulligan, you inspire me so much,” she said. “And to the amazing transformative, dynamic, Billie Holiday, who just transformed me with this role, and with her presence and her spirit.”

Andra is the second Black actress to win the Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama after Whoopi Goldberg for her work in The Color Purple.

See the entire list of winners right here.

Congratulations!!!!

Andra Day steps out in style for the 2021 Golden Globes on Sunday night (February 28) in Los Angeles.

The 36-year-old singer and actress wore a long gray silk tulle Chanel dress, which required over 1000 hours of work to make it. There are over 180,000 embroidered elements on the dress!

Andra‘s look was completed with Chanel Fine Jewelry, a Chanel bag and Chanel makeup.

Andra is up for two awards at tonight’s ceremony: Best Actress in a Motion Picture & Best Original song for The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

If you missed it, see why fans were mad after watching the new movie, which is streaming now on Hulu.

The 2021 Golden Globes, hosted bi-coastally by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, air tonight @ 8/7c on NBC.

Lee Daniels‘ United States Vs. Billie Holiday film finally premiered on Hulu tonight and fans have a lot of thoughts about the flick.

The movie centers on Billie Holiday, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, who spent much of her career being adored by fans across the globe.

However, not many recall that beginning in the 1940’s in New York City, the federal government targeted Billie in a growing effort to escalate and racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial and heart-wrenching ballad, “Strange Fruit.”

After screening the movie, many fans took to social media and opened up about how the movie resonated with them and how mad they are for the treatment Billie was subject to.

“I’m mad as hell the Billie Holiday movie got me pissed off at bae like this,” one fan wrote after watching.

Another added, “This movie made me very sad for Billie Holiday. Black women in general.”

Andra Day, who plays Billie, is nominated at this weekend’s Golden Globes for her role, as well as Best Original Song.

Click inside to see more reactions from fans about “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” on HuluMore Here! »

Andra Day has revealed that to become Billie Holiday for Hulu’s The United States vs. Billie Holiday she dived deep into the singer’s life.

“There’s still a lot that I am working out in me from playing Billie,” the 36-year-old singer and actress shared in an interview about the movie. “She gets in, you know what I mean? She gets ahold.”

Andra explained that while diving in psychologically, she also did physically as well.

“It was a commitment,” she shared. “I think it’s one I’m recovering from still. I’d never smoked cigarettes before. Just starting out smoking, I was practicing with my acting coach … I was like, ‘I want some of your American Spirits. That first day I was drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes, and I went home and threw up, like, five times!”

Andra added that she was able to quit after they “finished the last pickup shots last year. But what I expected to be a four-, five- or six-month habit ended up turning into about a year and a half.”

On top of the smoking, Andra also started to drink as well. Billie actually died in 1959 of complications from cirrhosis caused by alcohol abuse.

“I drank a lot of gin, I drank bourbon,” she recalled. “I hadn’t drank in so long, and it was never really a big part of my life, even when I did when I was younger.”

Andra also says that she was losing a lot of weight for the role too: “I was losing it healthily throughout that [period], and then once it got closer to shooting, that’s when I let everyone know, ‘OK, I’m gonna just kinda starve myself at this point!’”

Now though, she’s starting to gain it back.

“I’ve actually just recently started to gain back a little bit of weight. I’m up to, like, 140, which is good, ’cause I was 124 on set.”

Andra‘s “Tigress & Tweed” from the soundtrack is nominated for her first Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday is streaming NOW on Hulu.

Andra Day is opening up about how she prepared to play Billie Holiday in Hulu’s upcoming movie, The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

Speaking to Leslie Odom Jr. for Variety’s Actors on Actors, the 36-year-old entertainer revealed she went deep into Billie‘s life in order to play the jazz singer.

“I basically abused my body for a long time,” she admitted. “I’m joking and not really joking. I got the role at the very top of 2018. Reading everything I could get my hands on. Listening to every interview. Apparently, I exhausted the internet of Billie Holiday photos. Apparently, the internet will tell you that you’ve reached the end.”

Andra added that she “put my family through it; I put myself through it…I went from 163 pounds to 124 pounds. I would talk like her and I don’t drink or smoke, but I started smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. Not that I recommend people do this; I just was desperate because this is my first role. I just asked God to give me all of the pain and trauma. I asked him to give me her pain and give me her trauma.”

She also spoke about changing the way she sang just for the role.

“That was an early decision that we made right away to do the singing,” Andra says. “Every time I would sing a song I’d go, OK, Lee’s going to hear this and he’s going to fire me. But I wouldn’t have done it if they’d been, ‘Do it in your voice.’ That for me would have probably been a no.”

“There’s victory and there is pain in her voice. So to me it was just like we’ve got to get it, we have to get it, you know what I mean? It’ll have to be my interpretation of it, but it has to be there.”

The United States vs. Billie Holiday will be out on Hulu on February 26.

Watch the heart stopping trailer here…

Andra Day hesitates in singing a song on stage as police officers wait to arrest her in the trailer for Hulu’s upcoming movie, The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

The upcoming movie, from Lee Daniels, will center on Billie’s life when she was the target of the FBI, as they attempted to derail her career.

If you’re unfamiliar, the FBI claims that they first targeted the prolific singer because of her history with substance abuse. However, the real reason was the true stories behind her songs, including “Strange Fruit”.

Lee said of casting Andra in the role, which is her first on-screen role ever, that many wanted him to cast Andra, but he says, “I don’t like being pressured into anything.”

But, he added, “she was enchanting and she did embody the spirit of Billie. I sent her to an acting coach because she had not acted before. And the acting coach, on the fly, turned her iPhone on and showed me her prepping and getting into character. Just from that 30 seconds of video footage, I saw Billie Holiday without question. The game was up. There was no acting. There was just being.”

Also starring Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund and Natasha Lyonne, The United States vs. Billie Holiday will debut on February 26 on Hulu.

The upcoming movie The United States vs Billie Holiday, which stars Andra Day as the title character, has been sold to Hulu!

The film was directed by Oscar nominee Lee Daniels and it has been considered a major contender during the 2021 awards season.

Variety reports that the movie was originally set up for a sale at Paramount Pictures, but the deal never actually closed. That studio had been planning an advertising campaign for the film, but now that the pandemic is not slowing down, it makes sense for the movie to be released elsewhere.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday was originally scheduled for a theatrical release on February 26, 2021. No date has been announced for a streaming premiere on Hulu.

It’s likely that streaming services will dominate the Oscars in 2021 with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Apple all in the running with major contenders!

Here is the movie’s synopsis: “The legendary Billie Holiday, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, spent much of her career being adored by fans across the globe. Beginning in the 1940’s in New York City, the federal government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to escalate and racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial and heart-wrenching ballad, “Strange Fruit.” “