Singer Andra Day Trusts God’s Plan: ‘God is Working. Trust in His Holy Spirit’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Singer Andra Day is sharing how God played a part in the creation of her upcoming album, “Cassandra (Cherith).”
“Every song and every source of inspiration came spiritually,” Day, who previously performed at the Movieguide® Awards Gala, told The Hollywood Reporter. “A lot of times I have to pray to be like, ‘God make me open,’ because sometimes we don’t realize we’re actually not paying attention as much as we should, so I need God to ground me to make me present so that it opens my understanding.”
Day also shared that she struggles with insecurity as a performer but says she reminds herself it’s all a part of God’s plan.
“Trust. Trust you’re here for a reason. Trust that God is working. Trust in His Holy Spirit,” she emphasized.
Day had a special guest feature on the closing track of the album, “Thank You God (Mom Reading Psalm 62)” — her mother.
“I love my mom’s voice. My mom is a praying woman. She’s the reason I have the faith that I have today, so it was important for me to have her voice,” Day said of the decision to include her mother in the project.
She continued, “My mom’s so funny. I was like, ‘Do you want to say something?’ And she said, ‘No, I don’t need to say nothing. I’m just gonna read the word. I’m just gonna say what God says.’ So as we were going through the credits of the record, my mom said, ‘I’m sorry, what are we doing? That’s not me. I didn’t write that.’ I said, ‘I know, mom. It’s a composition,’ and she said, ‘No. I don’t want people to think that we’re taking God’s credit.’ Then when it came to the money, which I said is for your services, she was like, ‘That doesn’t go to me, it doesn’t belong to me.’ She was having no part of it. So I said, ‘OK, mother, we’ll tithe.’”
The singer often talks about her faith. In an interview with Andscape, she shared, “My courage comes from my faith in God. The faith that I’m here for a reason and a purpose. Relying on His strength and not my own.”
Speaking about her first album, “Cheers to the Fall,” Day said, “It is Christ who empowered me to be able to say those things. You’re not trying to prove yourself anymore. All you are doing is being obedient, and that really lifts the burden and the worry of people’s opinions.”
Movieguide® previously reported on the role Day’s faith played in her career:
Day’s mother was a strong Christian influence in her life growing up.
“My mother converted to Christianity when we were very young. When I got into my teen years and into my younger adulthood it was, ‘Yeah, yeah, I believe.’ But I was smoking weed, drinking heavily, into promiscuity—cheating on whoever I was with—just doing things selfishly, and doing music for my own sort of vain persona. I ended up moving out to New York … but my conscience just started to catch up with me. I told [God] everything I had done, I told my family everything I had done. Dealing with the guilt and the shame, you know, it was a very low point in my life. I didn’t have a job, completely broke, sleeping on my mom’s couch in her tiny little apartment. And any deal I had at the time basically fell through. It was a low point, but it was the greatest point in my life,” Day said in an interview in 2016.
She continued:
I rededicated my life to Christ. I was like, ‘I’m not playing games anymore, I’m not lukewarm, I’m not doing that anymore.’ I regret hurting someone, but I’m grateful for who I have become and how close I’ve been able to grow in Christ, because of all of that. I always say ‘those years were formative years. When I came back to San Diego, I literally told God, “God if you want me to do this, I’ll do this. If you want me to teach, I’ll be a teacher. If you want me to panhandle on the corner for you, I’ll do that.
From there, that’s when the door with Stevie Wonder opened. When things that weren’t supposed to be there came through. Eventually, he introduced me to the producer I did the record with, Adrian Gurvitz.
