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
Keke Palmer shares his POV with a breakdown in the shady remix of Usher “Confessions Part II”
In July 2023, Keke Palmer and her dad and former boyfriend Darius Jackson caused one of many great debates in social media. After Palmer was noticed (great, I can add) at the Usher concert this summer, Jackson began to X to share his contempt for the mother of selecting his child, causing a discourse with the “equivalent” of her outfit.
Although Jackson was very open about this case, Palmer was silent about her feelings at a viral moment – to this point. On Friday, May 9, the Wielfenian star released a recent song entitled “My Confessions”, in which she spills all tea at this moment and her break with Jackson.
“This is personal.” My confession “is exactly as it sounds – whether giving the feelings I buried”, Palmer he wrote on Instagram About the song. “Sometimes we need a closure, it does not come from a conversation – it results from being honest with each other. This is this song. My room. My brightness. My way to let go.”
The record, which rises from the “Confessions Part Conmissiones”, was written by Palmer and her best friend for 22 years, Tayla Parx, who says that the star “no” saw her through every version of herself. Describing the song as “harsh, emotional and real”, Palmer takes the listeners back to July 2023 and lirially explains every little thing about how Jackson broke up with her at the time, which prompted her to the evening of girls.
“Summer ’23, we were in Vegas, on the right/we broke up with me and jumped to the flight/you were an attempt to find the way to” positive “/so I thought I have a girl’s night”, sings. “48 hours later online/I made me a villain, but you lied, mm/but the truth is that now we now have now already ended in Vegas.
In the whole song and the lyrical film accompanying her, Palmer refers to Jackson’s controversial tweets, and even reported tensions between her and his family.
“Your family, they don’t like me, that’s good / but when did you come back on the side? / When I met you, you hated them as if you hated me now.”
Similarly, he turns to the response and response to his criticism about her appearance at the Usher concert: “72 hours, now your feelings hurt/my fans were pulling you because you had a nerve/you almost turned me into a banality/thought that your child will make me want to stay.”
As the chorus notes: “F— Your projections / These are my confessions”, Palmer explains how difficult it’s to inform her the truth when she sings: “Telling that it was difficult for me / Telling only for my peace / truth hurts and it is mine.”
Since the breakup, Palmer has revealed her and Jackson toxicity and the way much she hated the attention of the media surrounding her relationship.
From his memory “Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your National”, to the upcoming album “Just Keke”, Palmer says that “not to play perfectly here”, but “honestly,” and tell her story.

(Tagstranslate) Keke Palmer (T) Music
Music
Paul Wall joins forces with Gracie’s Corner to get a fresh remix “Wheels on the Bus” and this is BOP

As a parent of 4 children and three who’ve 10-i-fund, my favorite music genre at this moment of my life are jams suitable for the age, which I can listen to without the desire to stab my eyeballs. So when “Gracie’s Corner” struck my awareness a few years ago to fill this void (and appreciating parents around the world) I knew that we found gold.
For example, while “Happy Birthday” Stevie Wonder will all the time be a birthday song of the black community, at this point he is commonplace “Gracie’s Corner” version at birthday parties For those of us who went to see “sinners” at the opening weekend.
“Gracie’s Corner” for many who have no idea (or should not have children) is a YouTube channel for youngsters. According to their side, YouTube provides “a combination of educational, funny and encouraging songs for children from various environments. Come and dance with the game when he chooses a funny journey with family and friends!”
More precisely, they take some rhymed rhymes, which everyone knows and love and put a bit on it. Which leads us to the reason behind the season. If you have not heard the “Gracie’s Corner” version “Wheels on the bus” You cannot have black children. Until now, heavy bass, hi-hat jam trap has 111 million views. Yes, you read the right 111 million views. These wipers are Swisków. Let’s say, Issa Bop.
Well, because people from the headquarters of “Gracie’s Corner” don’t play truthfully, they got here out and got Paul Walla-Tak, he has Houston rap labels, Swithahouse Paul Wall, “Master of the People”-to drop a part of what is dirty south.
Listen to me. I don’t understand how this cooperation was created by Paul Wall and “Gracie’s Corner”, but whoever played this thing must conduct seminars on synergy and creative cooperation for the whole family. I hope that this person is liable for planning a family reunion, because in that case, it is not only city trips and cooking in the city park for this family. The undeniable fact that the whole poem by Paul Walla feels like the one who was sitting, which could fit on the slow rhythm album of Mike Jones, or mainly every song during which Paul Wall has ever appeared – but still works for BOP of this children – is a nasty work of the most beautiful diversity.

Listen, I do not know if you may have a reason to pull up “Gracie’s Corner”, but in case you do it, move quickly to listen to this “wheel on the H-Town bus-to-remiks” with Paul Wall. And in case you didn’t know that “Gracie’s Corner” exists earlier, consider your life, and now you see how the life of oldsters will look and the way it differs from a lonely life. Because now I hit this remix “wheels on the bus” in a automobile with my children. This, my friends, is for all wines.
Indeed, the wheels are rolling.

(Tagstranslata) parenting, and black
Music
André 3000 wore a piano on his back to the MET gala – here’s why

André 3000 is currently and has been for the most a part of the last 30 years of one in every of the leaflets dressed at the planet. Since placing the whole generation of young black men to turban in stores with cosmetics supplies to blond wigs and kilos, there may be nothing that Atlien cannot break away.
So when he hit a haunted blue rug during the MET gala in 2025 in the entire piano on the back, even the most lost that they had to cut the thorn on the side of Mrs. Jackson a little bit of slack. By turning a single-piece black outfit with a red hat, which definitely has a specific name, only carrying what I can put on is a designer trash bag-good room one in every of the lithium at a goat level at the level of hip-hop also wore a piano … on the back. Yes. Piano. The entire 88-lake piano. I hope it was hollowed out for ease of movement; André 3000 is just not exactly a spring chicken at the moment. He doesn’t even rap by trading his notators on his famous flute collection.
Now it is extremely likely that me and your, your mother and your cousin, are wondering what can force anyone, and much more so André 3000, to cultivate the piano. Well, the answer to this query lies on Walking Promothal Exparit that André 3000 was at the MET gala. Just before he appeared in the Vogue channel for Met Gala Dwet Photo OP, group chats were in the news that André 3000 dropped the EP entitled “7 piano sketches”, while the biggest fashion night was half of the spring.
And don’t think that 3000 has returned to the bars, “7 piano sketches” is the most literal title of the album I’ve ever heard in my life; This is literally an album stuffed with piano sketches.
As you may see, the art of the album is comparable to the meta gala of the André 3000 outfit. This boy is coooooooold. This latest EP appears almost a 12 months and a half after André 3000 dropped, “New Blue Sun”, through which he began playing the flute, and never tell us more about Susa Screw and the Sasha Thumper crew. Despite the mixed reviews of “New Blue Sun”, this album was nominated for a lot of Grammy Awards during the 2025 ceremony, including the nomination for “Album of the Year”.
When everyone finally ends up talking about Met Gala costumes and a great discovery of Rihanna, prepare for the attack of dialogue about the André 3000 piano album.

(Tagstotransate) Andre 3000
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