I'm a hip-hop fan, and I'm a Southern Cali girl.
— Andra Day
When you walk in the front of the White House, the pictures on the walls, they change out pretty frequently. They're all very cool and historical, with pictures from the current term and past terms.
Actors and singers share common ground in that they both express something.
'Rise Up' is definitely my baby. I think it was a gift because, you know, it's like God just spoke to me and wrote that song. It's very powerful.
My style was established in the Forties and Fifties, then got dragged through the decades and picked up a couple more things on the way.
Foreknowledge is a wonderful thing.
That's why I loved Dinah Washington. She sung jazz, but they called her the Queen of the Blues. She had the control and sophistication of jazz in her note selection and how to attack a song or certain lines, but then attacked it with a painful force of blues behind it. That's why I admired her so much, because of that versatility.
I was living with my mom in a tiny apartment in Chula Vista, near Third and H Street behind the 7-Eleven. It was crazy to be on the phone with Stevie Wonder. I felt like a meteor hit our apartment!
I pray, read the word, and then creative stuff happens here. Problem-solving and all of that comes into that space. So 'Da Box' actually represents my sanctuary and that time. I might look trapped in a box, but I'm actually more free in that box than anyone on the outside looking in or in any other space in my life.
My family wasn't in the music business, but they loved music.
I consider each performance to be an intimate conversation between me and the audience members.
What I wear onstage is so stylized and bold.
I'm a huge Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu fan, so working with those two in any capacity would be a dream.
I've always wanted to be a woman who isn't afraid to tell her story.
Performing at the TMCF Awards Gala is so exciting.
I try to not go, 'I'm writing a pop song.' Music is inherently genre-bending.
I love different eclectic bands. I love Phoenix and Kimber.
I loved Lauryn Hill; I loved the Fugees.
I get people today who say, 'I first heard about you through the Stevie Wonder commercial.' The power of advertising in that way is incredible.
At my shows, I like everyone to have a good time... but, I like for us to be real because there's freedom in that.
I'm grateful for the fans who've been there from the beginning and am excited about how we've grown and how we've evolved now.
It would have been so awesome to be born in the Thirties and be in your prime in the Fifties. Except for the whole being black thing, obviously!
I've been blessed with so many opportunities and so many amazing things throughout this process. But all the while, I remember that the reason that I'm here and the reason that I do music and tell these stories is that people come to know the love, the God that I know.
I knew that I could sing when I was young. I would listen to a lot of jazz; I'm a big jazz fan. When I first got to high school and studied musical theater, I could sing. But I added certain things to my voice, and I realized after graduating high school that this is the kind of voice I had. It's not very nimble, but it's heavy.
The elementary school I went to, Valencia Park, was focused on the arts.
Musically, I try not to box things in. I try to just play around this spectrum of influences: soul, jazz, and hip-hop.
I want people to know my truth. Unconditional love of God and each other.
I search for items that have history, like vintage finds - I love fur kitten-heel house slippers from the 1950s - and pieces from fashion houses that have been around for a long time, like Chanel and Dior.
If it looks like your grandma's bedsheets, I'll put it on my body.
I didn't want to box it in or say this show caters to this type of person... I think the tide of music is changing. We don't have to worry about rules. We should just do what feels good.
My idols are singers like Billie Holiday and Erykah Badu because there's no gloss on what they do.
Throughout my life, I've had consistent DNA.
I struggled academically in high school because it was hard to focus. It was hard to focus on those things that were other than artistic stuff.
I love the Black Keys because I love that guy's voice.
Listening to the stories told in jazz music and how those artists expressed their truths about the times and what they were dealing with is what struck me the most.
I am happy that I can challenge myself in various fields.
My faith was eventually what helped me face myself, tell the truth about everything I had done, face criticism, cope with guilt, pain, and grow from all of it.
My band and I are even closer. They've grown with me over four years, so we're closer and closer and closer.
It was so surreal, having my parents hear the President and First Lady saying to me, 'Good to see you again! We're so proud of you. We watched you on the Grammys and were like, 'That's our girl!'
I love hip-hop, and everybody knows that.
I was a dancer for long time. And you always hear that ballet is the core of dance, and that - once you have that down - you can do everything else. For me, jazz is like that for music.
I always loved music and was drawn to it and affected by it. But it wasn't until I got to San Diego that I started exploring music more.
My father loved music. He loved Motown and R&B, and my mother loved Journey and Fleetwood Mac, so they were always listening to it and playing it.
I'm excited for the audiences to hear the title track, 'Cheers to the Fall,' plus 'Red Flags' and 'Rearview.'
When I'm not working, I still love bright colors and patterns, but I choose pieces that are much more casual - I call it my lazy pinup look.
I'm grateful and enjoying the ride.
I'm very particular but very thrifty at the same time.
The most amazing thing is being onstage and watching the audience sing every song lyric for lyric.
I'm inherently a chameleon... to not evolve is to not live.
My sister and I - she's a musician - we jam all the time. We always play around for giggles with stuff that seem unconventional or stuff that seems funny. A lot of the stuff sometimes is just a response from jam sessions in her room, so she'll be on the guitar or the keyboard, and we'll just start singing and doing stuff.
