If you’re anything like us here at SoulBounce HQ, you’re waiting on pins and needles to see Andra Day give an Oscar-worthy performance as the queen of the blues Billie Holiday in the film, The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Andra and producer Salaam Remi have warmed us up for the movie that will be filled with music with the singles "Strange Fruit" and “All Of Me,” covering two of Billie Holiday’s best-known songs. Covers aren't all that Andra is contributing to the soundtrack, with the release of her original track, “Tigress & Tweed.”
Written by Raphael Saadiq, "Tigress & Tweed" is inspired by Holiday’s signature song “Strange Fruit.” The track starts with a simple piano loop, giving old school blues vibe, before a boom-bap hip-hop beat kicks in and Andra sings, “Strange fruit come down off that tree / Cut it down under your feet.” The song is an inspirational ditty that says our ancestors put in the work so that Black people today can be fruitful.
Of the track, Day said via a press statement, “If Billie Holiday were with us now, I believe she’d want to see ‘Strange Fruit’ evolved. If ‘Strange Fruit’ was a call to awareness, ‘Tigress & Tweed’ is a call to action because she laid the groundwork. Raphael Saadiq sent the perfect track, and the lyrics finally came to me like a flood after a prayer one day. I hope people are strengthened by Truth and Love when they hear it.”
The United States vs. Billie Holiday is a biographical film about the legendary blues songstress, based on her profile in the book Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days Of The War On Drugs. The film is directed by Lee Daniels and Susan-Lori Parks and stars Ms. Day, Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne and Garrett Hedlund. The United States vs. Billie Holiday will be available for streaming on Hulu on February 26th, just in time to close out Black History Month.
