Monday, December 21, 2015

Spokane-born singer gets Christmassy with Stevie Wonder

Posted By on Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 4:31 PM


Her voice is striking. It’s warm and wobbly. Like a soft blanket, you’ll probably want to wrap yourself up in this jazzy/bluesy voice.

When Andra Day comes into the camera’s focus — it’s all for an Apple commercial, although you probably won’t be able to remember that when you watching — she’s singing a stripped-down rendition of Stevie Wonder’s 1967 holiday release “Someday at Christmas,” along with the piano-playing superstar himself. Immediately, her voice piques your interest. You want to know more.

It turns out, Day was born in Spokane. Certainly, we can’t claim Day as our own exactly — she did grow up in Southern California — but we’ll take what we can get. What’s exciting here is that Day, 31, is an artist on the precipice of her career. She was signed by Warner Brothers back in 2012, but 2015 is her year. In July, Rolling Stone dubbed her an New Artist You Need to Know and her full-length studio album released in August garnered her two Grammy nominations (Best R&B Performance and Album).

As it’s only a couple days away from Christmas, they won't be showing the heart-warming commercial on TV for much longer. But you can always check it out below.

For those of you majorly into Christmas music, read about what it takes to write a new Christmas song, according to local musicians, besides just diddling around on your MacBook Pro.

And one more sweet morsel from Day, proving she isn't just some one-note retro artist, her take on Eminem's seminal "Lose Yourself" has collected more than one million views on YouTube. With all of that power and might behind her we can't wait to see what she does next. 

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Laura Johnson

Laura moved to the great Inland Pacific Northwest this summer. She is the Inlander's new music editor.