Andra Day Opens Up About Mental Health, Family and Coming Back from Billie Holiday in Candid Interview (Exclusive)

• Andra Day’s new album, Cassandra (cherith)out now via Warner Records
• The project comes after the R&B star won Grammy and Golden Globe awards for her impressive portrayal of Billie Holiday in 2021. United States v. Billie Holidayfrom which she had a hard time recovering
• The singer and actress has since focused on her mental health and hopes to start a family soon

Andra Day has lived a lot in the eight-plus years since her last album, Long live autumnwas released in 2015 — from the role of Billie Holiday in 2021. United States v. Billie Holiday to winning the Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globe awards and performing at the Super Bowl in 2024.

More importantly, Day learned a lot more about herself. The R&B singer and actress released a new album, Cassandra (cherith)May 10, a 16-track project that chronicles her ongoing journey of self-discovery — beginning with a title that marks Daya’s return to her birth name, Cassandra Monique Batie.

“I was just uncomfortable in myself, in my own skin,” the 39-year-old “Rise Up” singer, whose stage moniker combines her birth name with Holiday’s “Lady Day,” tells PEOPLE. “That’s when I learned what my name meant, ‘Speaker of the Truth, Encourager of the People,’ and I realized that it was perfectly fine to come out as myself—more than fine. It can actually be encouraging or a blessing to people.”

Andra Day’s ‘Cassandra (cherith)’ album cover.

Myriam Santos

Growing up in San Diego, Day often found herself presenting as Cassandra who felt “fake and weird” and decided to perform under a stage name to create “a little separation”. The choice suited her for a while, as she was discovered by Stevie Wonder and his ex-wife, Kai Millard, in 2011 and signed to Warner Records a few years later before releasing the retro-influenced Long live autumn to great success.

Pretty soon, Day was back in the studio with what seemed like a clear idea for her next project: “an empowerment album that’s a little more cold-blooded, a little more in-your-face, about the system.” After she started, she auditioned to play Holiday in 2017, was cast a year later and transformed into the “Strange Fruit” singer physically and emotionally.

Stepping into Holiday’s shoes affected Daya’s health as she began to drink, smoke and see the world through Holiday’s eyes. “There is a confidence I got from her. There are definitely toxic traits that I got from her, especially when it comes to relationships,” admits the performer, who split from his romantic partner while wrapped up in the role. “I realized that I had to realize a little bit and say, ‘Wow, I didn’t make good decisions.'”

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Andro’s day.

Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal/Getty

During the entire production United States v. Billie Holiday, Day was unable to work on her own music. After a film release cycle and a successful awards season, it’s time for him to continue working on his album – but it’s hard to find himself again. “I wish I had known, before I went in, that they actually have therapists who help you de-characterize,” she says. “I have a therapist now.”

As Day tried to reconnect with herself, she continued to create songs, then took a break as she landed film roles in An exposition of forgiveness and Deliverance. “Engaging in other projects would help me shed the character a little. I would have chosen something from the new character, but I discarded a little more of the old character,” she reflects.

Eventually, Day realizes that she has to stop looking for the person she was before she played Holiday and embrace a new version of herself.

“As soon as I started writing from the place of what I was experiencing — love, loss, my own personal growth — that’s when things started to flow. So it just became a super, super personal album, and that’s why I called it Cassandra”, explains Day. “I have this weird history with my name and its meaning, but that was the only way to describe the album. I felt like, ‘This is me in the last decade.'”

Cassandra (cherith) it also features vulnerable explorations of Day’s mental health journey. She was diagnosed with ADHD as a child, but her mother, author of DA Batie, avoided giving her medication in the hope that it would allow her to develop freely. Through more recent visits to therapists and psychologists, she learned that she still has symptoms of ADHD as an adult.

“It’s very, very hard to focus, it’s very hard to be on time. And then you become hyperfocused because you’re chasing that dopamine rush. I think it showed in my relationships, work and everything,” says Day, who wrote about her experience with mental health, especially as a black woman in the United States, on her new album, “Heavy on My Mind.”

Andro’s day.

Myriam Santos

“I’m still in the process of figuring it out, which is a crazy thing to say at my age because you feel like you’re supposed to be in control. But I had no idea,” she explains, noting that the diagnosis “actually helped me stop telling myself that I’m this horrible person who’s so broken and can’t do anything, and that I’m a failure, and I wake up feeling sometimes so hard, because I’m like, ‘You’re just neurodivergent, you’re just wired differently. That is OK.'”

While Day is admittedly still figuring out the next steps in her mental health journey, “there’s something about the process that’s already helping,” she says. “Everything seems less hopeless.”

Instead of just looking back on the past few years of his life, Day can now think about the future. Despite being single, she is now starting to think about the possibility of motherhood.

How her role as Andre Day in the Billie Holiday biopic inspired her to explore freezing her eggs

Andra Day in Los Angeles in February 2024.

Matt Hayward/Getty

“I think I’ll just take these babies out and do it myself. I have God and my mom. I’m fine,” jokes the star, who plans to freeze her eggs in the next year. “I would like to be in love, I would like to be married, I would like to have a family, all the things. But I won’t let that stop me.”

Daya’s current, grounded perspective also influenced her view of success in relation to Cassandra (cherith). Her last album earned three Grammy nominations and spawned a major hit, so naturally she’s hoping to reach the same level this time around. “But I’ll tell you, I made an album that I really love,” she says.

“I try not to be so nihilistic, like, ‘Oh my God, if this doesn’t go well, it’s over.’ No no. You just make more music, put more music out and just keep doing it,” the singer continues. “I want both. I want people to like it, but I also just want to make sure I don’t put my personal value on it.”

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Currently halfway to EGOT status, Day has come a long way since being discovered by Millard and Wonder. Since then, however, she’s stayed in touch with Wonder and even performed at the same shows as the “Superstition” icon, showing her that even the most legendary musicians have to work hard to stay creative and ambitious.

“One time we were having lunch and he wanted to play me those songs he was working on. His mentality was like, ‘I just really want to know if you like him. Do you think people will like it?’ And I say: ‘Why would you ask me anything?’ Like, ‘Bro, you did done this,’” Day recalls. “But I think there’s something so special about keeping that hunger and keeping that desire.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education