Andra Day's surprise 2021 Golden Globe Best Actress Motion Picture Drama win for her turn as Billie Holiday makes the Grammy nominee the second black actress ever to win the category and the first to do so in 35 years.

With a style from decades before her time and a voice for the ages, Andra Day creates what she calls "retro-pop-soul" music. "It's a blend of jazz, soul, doo-wop, plus a little bit of rock and a little bit of hip-hop as the underbelly," she says. As comfortable as she is with contemporary R&B, it is the emotions and voices of Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu that call to Andra the loudest.

Filmmaker Lee Daniels' The United States Vs. Billie Holiday stars Day as Billie Holiday. The FBI launched an undercover sting operation again Holiday for using narcotics, but they ultimately wanted to stop her from singing her song, "Strange Fruit." "Strange Fruit" is a song written by Abel Meeropol and recorded by Holiday in 1939. It protests the lynching of Black Americans, with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees.