Andra Day Makes History at the Golden Globes

Last night, Andra Day made history at the 78th Golden Globes by winning the trophy for Best Actress in a Drama for her performance as Billie Holiday in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” In doing so, she became the second-ever Black actress to do so in 35 years! The first actress to win this award was Whoopi Goldberg for her performance in “The Color Purple” in 1985.

A visibly overwhelmed Day accepted the award virtually, surrounded by her family and friends, and her speech had us feeling ALL the feels!

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” tells the story of how Holiday was targeted by the US government in an effort to racialize the war on drugs. While critics have found the film itself to be a bit uneven, there has been universal praise surrounding Day’s performance. Here’s what our PopViewers had to say about her astonishing breakout role!

 

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Day’s win comes on the heels of widespread criticism of the voting body behind the Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In a bombshell exposé, published last week by the LA Times, it was reported that not a single one of the HFPA’s 87 members is black. Suddenly, the egregious snubs of shows like “I May Destroy You,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” and “Da 5 Bloods” make a bit more sense.

The hosts of last night’s ceremony, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, wasted little time before mocking the HFPA’s lack of diversity during their opening monologue.

“Look, we all know award shows are stupid. But even with stupid things inclusivity is important, and there are no Black members of the Hollywood Foreign Press….You gotta change that, so here’s to changing it.”- Tina Fey

Here’s hoping that the HFPA keeps their word and actively addresses their lack of diversity moving forward. But in the meantime, we can still celebrate wins where we get them- and Andra Day’s victory is well worth saluting! Who knows?!? An Oscar win could very well be in her future….

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