Music
Andra Day talks new album, plays a villain and regains confidence after vocal injury

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Andra Day rose to acting acclaim after her starring role within the 2021 Billie Holiday biopic, however the soulful singer nearly lost the ability of her powerful voice in the method.
Day suffered a vocal injury after smoking cigarettes for her role in Lee Daniels’ “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” It took her a while to get well from a hemorrhage in her vocal cords, but now it appears like the singer is back on form together with her latest album, “Cassandra (cherith),” which was released earlier this month.
“Cassandra” – which is Day’s legal name – is her first album in nine years, since her debut in 2015 with “Cheers to the Fall”, which received a Grammy nomination together with the superb single “Rise Up”. On his new album, he explores the complexities of his past relationships and his spiritual walk with God.
Day has been attempting to regain her confidence since starring within the movie “Holiday,” which helped her win a Grammy and a Golden Globe for her acting and music. She trained her vocals in studio sessions and on several large stages, including several performances during Grammy week and the pre-Super Bowl game, where she performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” earlier this yr.
In a recent interview, Day talked to The Associated Press about her latest album and how her faith helped her overcome heartbreak and her desire to play a villain.
The comments have been evenly edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: How essential was it for you to deal with the problem of religion in “Cassandra”?
DAY: Faith is my entire foundation. It’s who I’m. If someone asked me to summarize my identity, I might answer: “I am a follower of Christ. I am a child of God.” What matters is the way you show up. No one’s perfect. When creating this album, I wanted people to experience the mistakes I made. You don’t desire to remain on this place. You need to grow out of it. No matter what mistakes I made or didn’t perform well, I used to be very loved.
AP: How has your faith helped you overcome heartbreak?
Day: This season I’m intensely reminded that I’m loved. That’s what I mean. I feel like I’m hard to like. I feel like when people get to know me they’ll think, “Oh God, she’s really not that great or interesting.” I’ve handled a lot of this type of imposter syndrome. This is the love I really want. There is a verse that claims that God’s plan shouldn’t be to harm you. But they’re there to provide you hope and a future. I stand by it. I imagine it. It’s very painful for me because I like really deeply – something I recently discovered. But at the identical time, it’s a reminder that God’s plan for me shouldn’t be nearly me on this romantic relationship. This could also be a part of it. It is wonderful. But that is a holistic issue that concerns every one’s life. His plans for me are good. God’s love and plans for me. This is what really helps me in the long run.
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AP: How badly were your vocal cords damaged?
DAY: Hemorrhage occurred. You could see inflammation of the blood vessels. I actually have one which is in pretty bad shape at once, nevertheless it hasn’t fully hemorrhaged, which is great. This was my rescue. It’s just drier, more hemorrhagic, more damage and breakdown.
AP: Do you regret smoking cigarettes to play Billie Holiday?
DAY: I began to wonder if it was the best decision. I used to be really desperate. It was my first role. But it definitely had… an impact. I left Billie feeling more confident due to who she was, how she walked across the room and dealt together with her own confidence issues. My voice as a singer. Over the last yr or two I actually have had serious self-confidence issues. It’s really hard when you already know your voice is one-way and then all of a sudden you are like, “Oh my God, I am unable to hit these (notes) or I’m having a hard time hitting these (notes). You need to determine sing again. This is totally new. It definitely affected my self-confidence. Recently, the situation appears to be improving.
AP: Was smoking required for this role?
DAY: I didn’t need to smoke for Billie. I’m just awesome. It appeared to me that this was one in all those roles that required sacrifice. I simply cannot get it to burn well on screen.
AP: Has your voice reached your level recently?
DAY: We played on the Blue Note (jazz festival) in New York. God was so great. We sold out two nights. It was amazing. There were moments in this system after I felt prefer it wasn’t my very own voice. I used to be in a position to hit certain notes and reach certain places. Recently it has given me more confidence. I just have to get back on the horse and keep doing it and strengthening my muscles like all the pieces else.
AP: What are your future profession plans?
DAY: I would like to play more. I also need to make more music. I need to make more music, more consistently. I’ll take one other break someday. It won’t be one other nine years. I actually need to make EPs with artists I like. Just drop a whole bunch of EPs. All sorts of species. All sorts of styles. I would like to support the opposite producers who worked on this album.
AP: Is there a specific role you wish to play?
DAY: I like futuristic sci-fi stuff. I prefer to play a sort of warrior hero. Biographies too. There are three roles that I’m extremely focused on. I might like to play the unique version of Poison Ivy. I might definitely like to play Eartha Kitt and Angela Davis. These are my dream roles.
AP: It can be interesting to see you play a villain like Poison Ivy. Why her?
DAY: This is the funniest a part of playing the bad girl. She’s only bad for you. She’s just bad for the audience. For me, as an actor, I do not play a bad girl. I never play a bad character. That’s what I learned from Tasha Smith and Lee (Daniels). To really play well and be convincing, all the pieces in your head needs to be justified. Every move I make. Every thing has its reason. Violent passion. How in my mind and head I do not function like that in real life because now I actually have justified every horrible thing I actually have done and said. I do not have a look at Poison Ivy like, “Yeah, I’m playing a villain.” I say, “My God, she is an amazing plant savior.” … It’s the difference.
Music
The prosecutor says that Sean “Diddy” Combs “lawyers are looking for reasons to delay his May trial

The Federal Prosecutor in New York said on Monday that lawyers with a mogel of Sean “Diddy” Combs are looking for reasons why he delays the sexual trade process, which is to start in three weeks.
This month, the most recent version of the accusation against Combs, 55, added two latest allegations this month, but he still didn’t request, said prosecutors. This, in addition to possible delays from the routine means of sharing evidence with each side, called Discovery, meant that prosecutors thought that he could get stuck in time, said the assistant of the American prosecutor Christa Christa Slavik.
Combs has been closed and not using a deposit since his September arrest. He again handled the guilty accusation at Monday’s hearing, but in addition remained dispassionate within the courtroom.
Judge Arun Subramanian told COMPS lawyers that they’d on Wednesdays to ask for a break within the trial to devote time to discovering.
“We are a freight train heading for the trial,” he said.
Marc Agnifilo, representing Combs, said that defense may ask for a “very short” two-week postponement over the problems of discovery, including the shortage of presidency of asking a key witness to transfer 200,000 its e-mails, and never only permission to emphasize those that they think were essential.
The latest version of the indictment, filed on April 4, added two latest allegations and accused the comb of using force, fraud or coercion to force a lady to engage in business sexual acts from no less than 2021 to 2024.
He also claims that Combs was involved within the transport of a lady who was only as “victim-2”-and other people, including business sex employees, in the identical period engaging in prostitution.
The latest allegations have strengthened the indictment, which has already charged him with a conspiracy of racketeers and sexual trade.
Federal prosecutors stated that the allegation of a crunch of racketeers covers the accusations that the Combs-SEX-Traffish three victims and compelled to the fourth, considered one of his employees, to sexual intercourse with him.
His lawyers responded to the most recent version of the indictment, saying that she didn’t add any latest allegations or prosecutors and anxious only former long -term girls involved in consensual relations.
Prosecutors say that Combs forced and used women for years because he used his “power and prestige” as a music star to draw a network of colleagues and employees to help him when he silenced the victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical bits.
They say that the founding father of Bad Boy Records prompted drug victims, intricately produced sexual performances with men’s sex employees in events called “waaks”.

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Music
Sean’s lawyers “Diddy” Combs want sworn at the hearing questioned for sex, drugs and violence

Sean’s lawyers “Diddy” Combs call a judge to permit potential jurors in the upcoming hip-hop Mogul process about the sexual trade process about their views regarding sex, drugs and violence.
Lawyers approached that they submitted a proposed questionnaire, which was filled in by individuals called to the trial on May 5 at the Federal Court in Manhattan.
In a letter to the judge at the end of Friday, lawyers said that they want to know the readiness of the would -be sworn to look at movies which can be sexually clear or show a physical attack. They also say that they want to know their views on individuals with many sexual partners.
In their very own list, prosecutors criticized the proposed defense questionnaire for too long and touching entities that the judge would ask higher personally, if at all.
They said that a few of the proposed 72 defense questions, some containing subjects, were “completely irrelevant to the ability to perform the jury.”
Prosecutors also cited the Ghislaine Maxwell sexual trade process for instance of how long a questionnaire could be.
After Maxwell was convicted of sexual trade in December 2021, the jurorz admitted that he didn’t reveal that he was a victim of sexual abuse, blaming his supervision after “he” dispersed when he accomplished the questionnaire “and” too fast “, causing that she understood the questions badly.
Judge Arun Subramanian told lawyers that questionnaires could be separated to a whole bunch of potential jury at the end of April, in order that the interrogation of potential jury could start on May 5, and opening declarations probably on May 12.
The 55-year-old Combs didn’t plead guilty that he had subjected to sexual abuse inside 20 years. The founding father of Bad Boy Records remained trapped with no deposit since the September arrest.
The indictment accuses the comb of using “power and prestige”, which he ruled as a musical tycoon to intimidate, threaten and lure women in his orbit, often under the guise of a romantic relationship.
The indictment stated that he then used force, threats and coercion to cause victims, including three women laid out in court documents, to interact in industrial sexual acts.

He said that he gave his victims of violence, threats of violence, threats of monetary and reputational damage and verbal abuse.
Prosecutors said that a key element of evidence at the trial could be a movie showing Combs, which hit his former protagonal and girlfriend, the singer of R&B Cassie and throwing her to the floor in the hotel corridor.
Defense lawyers argued that prosecutors built their case on charges that attempt to demonize sexual acts between adults.
They told the judge that they were unable to realize consensus with prosecutors regarding what potential jury needs to be asked about questionnaires.
“Defense believes that it is important that we allow potential jurors to be honest about the unprecedented and negative attention of the media, which they could be exposed to, related to Mr. Combs,” lawyers wrote.
Defense lawyers also asked that the jury could be asked to say in the event that they were watching programs on television entitled: “The Fall of Diddy”, “Diddy is?” “Downfall of Diddy” and “Diddy: The Making of A Bad Boy”.

(Tagstotransate) Diddy
Music
Coachella continues the appearance of Weezer, T-Pain and Bernie Sanders

The second day of Coachelli took place, well -known guests from Hollywood and Washington, DC, the emotional performance of Weezer and calm power transfer between the stars of Elektropop. Then Flava Flav joined the character of Yo Gabba Gabba on the stage to rap “I love mistakes!”
The cultural width of the influential Coachella Valley music and art festival was fully presented on Saturday at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont and Rep. Maxwell Frost from Florida went from the rally in Los Angeles to the desert to introduce Clairo, praising the political activism of a 26-year-old singer and writer.
Less than an hour earlier, Charli XCX ran a minimalist scene during which Troye Sivan and Billie Eilish joined her, with an audience, which included the Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet nominated in the first row in a giant smile and backpack.
As for this power transfer: after last 12 months’s “brother Summer” the English pop star ended her “girl, so misleading” performance with the New Zealand Elektropop Star Lorde, declaring “Lorde Summer 2025”.
Sanders’ appearance was not the only dose of the policy of the day. Billie Joe Armstrong adapted the lyrics opening Green Day “American Idiot” to declare that “is not part of the magician program” and modified the lyrics into “Jesus of Suburbia” to “escape from pain like children from Palestine.”
T-Pain brought mash-ups and covers to the most important stage, singing “Don’t Stop Be Believin” by Journey and “Tennesee whiskey” by Chris Stapleton.

Earlier, Weezer provided a dozen songs in a well -adopted performance with the participation of “Undone (Sweater Song)”, “Buddy Holly” and the cover of “Enter Sandman” Metallica.
The band played 4 days after Bassist’s wife Scott Shriner, Jillian Lauren, was shot and wounded by the police in Los Angeles. Lauren, the writer of two memories, was arrested and later sent a deposit after the police said that she aimed a weapon at them.
The team members didn’t turn a special incident to this incident, but the frontman Rivers Cuomo told the crowd: “It’s good to get here and spend these emotions.”
Coachella began on Friday, and Lady Gaga began to perform the crowd, extravagant theatrical, five times. The star of K-Pop Lisa attracted an enormous crowd to the Sahara tent, and Benson Boone announced his second album and sang “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Queen Brian May on the guitar.
The festival will last until Sunday, and the next round of performances on April 18-20. Travis Scott entitled Saturday evening on the most important stage of Post Malone appeared in the final machine on Sunday evening.

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