ANDRA DAY

Behind a podium stands a woman with red lipstick, large hoop earrings and hair in a tall, curly updo. She’s wearing a long and colorful dress as she graciously accepts Billboard’s Award for “Powerhouse” singer. This is Andra Day.

Day is best known for her song “Rise Up” from her album “Cheers to the Fall,” a unique and artistic singer, her music style is described as R&B with her distinct jazz, blues and soul influences. Even her stage name, Andra Day, pays homage to the jazz singer Billie Holiday, who was often called Lady Day.

Day, born Cassandra Monique Batie, had always been musically inclined and was drawn to performance arts at a young age. Since she was five, Day had taken dance classes and later started singing at the First United Methodist Church in Chula Vista along side her participation in musical theater. What really drew her toward music, though, were her arts-oriented elemen tary school and exposure to her biggest influences — the jazz singers Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington — at the age of 11. In an article from The New York Times by Alexis Soloski, Day describes the first time she heard Holiday sing: “I heard ‘Sugar’ and then I heard ‘Strange Fruit.’ It changed my idea of what a great singer was.”

She attended the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, however, it took her until 2010 to make her breakthrough when Stevie Wonder introduced her to producer Adrian Gurvitz, after Wonder’s wife at the time, Kai Millard Morris, saw a video of Day singing on You Tube. In an interview with Live Nation, Day described the first time Wonder called her: “I was living in a tiny little studio apartment with my mom…I didn’t be lieve it.” She ended up collaborating with Gur vitz for much of her debut album and was able to get an album deal with Warner Bros.

Now a seasoned musician and actress, Day is still in contact with Wonder and she has many professional achievements under her belt. She performed at the White House, sang with Stevie Wonder and other artists and received many awards in both her singing and acting career. Some of these awards include nomination for the 2016 Grammys Award for Best R&B album for “Cheers to the Fall,” nomination for the 2016 Grammys Award for Best Performance and a Daytime Emmys Award for her performance of her song “Rise Up.” She was only the second Black woman in history to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture for Drama for her debut as Billie Holiday in the movie “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” in which she was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. San Diego raised, Day was awarded the key to the city by elected officials in 2021. In an article in The San Diego Union Tribune, Day said “This just means everything because I love my city…I will always have San Diego on my shoulders, on my back and in my heart.”

A main reason Day makes music is to make an impact on people and help them through tough times. One strategy she uses to spread her message in her songs is to partic-

According to Day in the article “San Diego Native Andra Day to Appear on 40 Million Coke Cups at McDonald’s” in the San Diego Voice & Viewpoint, her song “Rise Up” is a “simple reminder to persevere.”

Through the Coke Campaign, she can spread this same message with her lyrics and the QR code to a short film inspired by her song on Coca-Cola cups at McDonald’s. This action carries out her purpose of helping others since “[“Rise Up” is] healing and encouraging and inspiring because I believe music in its purest form is a vessel of healing,” as Day said in an article from Billboard by Adelle Platon.

This translates into her music through her expressive voice and convey true human tion. Each song is filled with so much care and soul, making her discography worth listening to.

by Sophia Gorba