The United States Vs. Billie Holiday: Music From The Motion Picture

About

“I actually said no to this role,” singer Andra Day tells Apple Music about the performance that changed her life. “I'm head over heels for Billie. I love Billie, but I had zero desire to do this movie. I was terrified in this movie. I said no multiple time. I kept trying to figure out how to get out of it without disappointing anybody.” Day has already won a Golden Globe for her star turn in director Lee Daniels’ <i>The United States v. Billie Holiday</i>, and she’s also nominated for an Oscar for her performance as the legendary jazz singer. Thankfully, Day eventually auditioned and secured the part, though it initially took a minute to win over Daniel. She says neither of them left a strong first impression on the other, but they each desperately wanted to do Holiday’s story justice by highlighting her contributions to popular music as well as the civil rights movement. That mission—to share Holiday’s multifaceted story while honoring her music—eventually laid their creative foundation. “He saw a fear in me, a terror to do this role,” she say. “Then I saw a fear in him, a desire to get it right. We had to overcome that together.” One of the most challenging aspects of Day’s work on the film and its soundtrack, which includes moving renditions of “Strange Fruit,” “All of Me,” and “God Bless the Child,” involved transforming her own voice into the late singer’. She points to Holiday’s 1958 album <i>Lady in Satin</i>, the final release of her lifetime, as a key influence in developing the role’s vocal tone. Day also had to completely rethink her regular routine in order to invoke the husky, hard-living quality of Holiday’s iconic croon. “We worked hard to get to that place, to train the muscle,” she say. “I smoked a lot. I drank a lot, which I don't typically do. I just stopped taking care of my voice as a vocalist. No tea, just cold ice and gin and cigarette.” Holiday’s life story—and the numerous struggles she endured before dying from complications related to cirrhosis of the liver at 44—not only impacted Day’s approach to singing her greatest hit, but also her own songs that were inspired by the film—such as “Tigress and Tweed,” which was named for two of Holiday’s favorite perfumes and is a highlight of the soundtrack. For Day, Holiday’s voice is a conduit for her talent, but also her pain—and her strength. “I look at her voice as a scroll, and then on that scroll is written every hit that she took—every sexual abuse, every encounter when she was child in a brothel being raped, losing her father to Jim Crow, every time she slammed heroin, dragged a cigarette, drank, and every time she stood up to the government,” she say. “Everything is written onto this beautiful, complex vocal.” .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →