Andra Day on how her song ‘Tigress & Tweed’ builds on Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’

For the soundtrack to “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” Andra Day said she wanted to write a new song that built on the late singer’s protest song “Strange Fruit.” Day, whose portrayal of Holiday earned her a best actress Golden Globe, performs the signature song in the film.

“The big question was: If [Holiday] were alive, if she were with us today, how would she have wanted to see ‘Strange Fruit’ evolve?” Day said of the anti-lynching song.

“I wanted there to be a sense of strength, of power, of destroying these sort of imbalanced scales, and these systems of inequality,” Day said of her song “Tigress & Tweed,” which builds on “Strange Fruit.” “I wanted the song to be more militant. I wanted it to have a tone of ‘This is more of an intimidating fruit. You’re not just a sad, poor — a fruit to be pitied, you know, a fruit to be respected and loved and to be honored.’”

Video courtesy of Hulu

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