Music Friday: Andra Day Gives Up Gold for Grains of Sand in Her Bluesy 2015 Release

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you outstanding songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, the multitalented Andra Day performs "Gold," a bluesy ballad framed as a heartfelt apology to a former lover.

Day admits she betrayed him even though he treated her “like a precious gift.” She suffers a hard lesson when she learns that her new lover is a cheater.

Day describes her remorse with a line that repeats throughout the song: “I gave up gold / For grains of sand / Slipping through my hand.”

In an NPR interview, Day explained how “Gold” was born.

“I was with someone that I was not good to, and wasn’t faithful to,” she said. “I used to be ashamed to talk about it, and ‘Gold’ was really my moment to say, ‘I’m going to talk about it. I’m going to purge because other people experience this.'”

She continued, “So, it’s basically a letter to him apologizing for what I had done. Sort of spelling out my experience and heartbreak after that — having someone betray me and what it felt like. And then letting him know that I now understand what [he] went through… It’s a whole candid story told from beginning to end.”

“Gold” is featured on Day’s 2015 debut album, Forever Mine. That same year, Rolling Stone magazine named Andra Day one of the “10 New Artists You Need to Know.”

The publication was right on the mark, as Day would score a 2021 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in the biopic The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

Born Cassandra Monique Batie in Edmonds, WA, in 1984, the artist's stage name was inspired by Holiday’s nickname, "Lady Day."

Day got her first break in 2012 when a series of her popular song covers went viral on YouTube. Those videos caught the attention of numerous record labels, which courted the future star. Eventually, she signed with Warner Bros. Records.

The photo, above, also reveals that Day is a big fan of gold jewelry. She wears two gold rings on each finger, bold gold cuffs on her wrists, large gold hoop earrings and two gold chain necklaces.

Please check out the video of Andra Day performing "Gold" live at the SiriusXM studios in June of 2016. The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…

“Gold”
Written and performed by Andra Day.

He don’t know I call him the teacher
He had a hard lesson for the kid
I get I put you through hell
He put me under the same spell
He lied man, he stressed me out
You loved me like a precious gift
And he loved me like a sloppy kiss
You would tell me your heartaches
Now I understand the pain
Oh why did I let you drown

Baby would you believe
That I’ve been broken
You say memories
Play again and again
I see the reel now it’s real to me
I gave up gold
For grains of sand
Slipping through my hand
Slipping through my hand

You had no problems with commitment
Like a king is loyal to what’s his
You looked for a ring to fit
While I played wifey with a kid
Oh the irony makes me sick

He tried to make me look crazy
Nothing new about his kind of scheme
I laugh when I think about
His face when truth nearly spilled out
He looked like me I get that now

Baby would you believe
That I’ve been broken
You say memories
Play again and again
I see the reel, now it’s real to me
I gave up gold
For grains of sand
Slipping through my hand
Slipping through my hand
Slipping through my hand
Slipping through my hand

Baby would you believe
That I’ve been broken
You say memories
Play again and again
I see the reel, now it’s real to me
I gave up gold
For grains of sand
Slipping through my hand
Slipping through my hand
Slipping through my hand
Slipping through my hand

Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com / SiriusXM.

Birthstone of the Month: This Fiery Red Gem Is a Super-Rare Variety of Imperial Topaz

A stunning member of the Smithsonian's National Gem Collection for the past three years, the impossibly rare "Whitney Flame Topaz" is one of the world's most extraordinary examples of November's official birthstone.

The vibrant red gem weighs 48.86 carats and exhibits an exaggerated pear-shape that resembles a flame. At the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals in Washington, DC, the gem is mounted vertically and lit from behind to emphasize its fiery color.

Red topaz represents an extremely tiny subset of gem-quality Imperial Topaz, which is highly coveted and most often seen in golden-orange to orange-red hues. Shades of pink, purple, and red are even more rare. The red color is the result of trace amounts of chromium in the gemstone’s chemical composition.

The Whitney Flame was sourced more than 50 years ago at the famed Capao Mine mine of Ouro Preto, Brazil.

“Of all the topaz found in that locality, only about a percent or two is gem quality,” Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection, told Smithsonian.com in 2018. “And, of those one to two percent, maybe one percent of those have a deep enough red color that they could be marketed as red topaz.”

The flame-shaped red topaz was held privately for many decades, before emerging at the annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in 2017. Post and Smithsonian benefactor Coralyn Wright Whitney were moved to tears when they viewed the stone for the first time.

“When we saw it, we all collectively started weeping a little bit,” Post said. “The color and beauty of this gemstone is astounding. You have to see it to believe it.”

Whitney acquired the stone and gifted it to the Smithsonian, along with a $5 million endowment.

In September of 2018, the Smithsonian welcomed the red gem as a permanent resident of the National Museum of Natural History and honored the philanthropist by naming it the "Whitney Flame Topaz."

Brazil is the largest producer of quality topaz, but the stone is also mined in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Russia, Australia, Nigeria, Germany, Mexico and the U.S (specifically California, Utah and New Hampshire). Topaz rates an 8 on the Mohs hardness scale, making it a durable and wearable gem.

Credits: Whitney Flame Topaz image by Greg Polley / Smithsonian and digitally enhanced by SquareMoose.

Bauble Bought at a Car Boot Sale Turns Out to Be a 34-Carat Diamond Worth $2MM

An elderly British woman who brought her "costume" jewelry to a local auctioneer to be evaluated was stunned to learn that a huge "faux" stone in the collection was actually a 34-carat diamond valued at more than $2 million.

The woman — described as a lovely, elderly lady in her 70s who wished to remain anonymous — had amassed much of her collection at car boot sales over many years. Car boot sales differ from flea markets because they are generally populated not by professional sellers, but by ordinary folks who sell their unwanted household items out of the back of their cars.

Mark Lane, the owner of Featonby's Auctioneers, said that the box of jewelry contained a number of low-value costume jewelry items, as well as the retiree's wedding band and the unusually large clear stone.

At first, Lane believed the round brilliant-cut stone was likely a cubic zirconia. The stone sat on his desk for two or three days until a friend of the company made a passing comment that he should test the stone.

The friend's hunch was right. Lane held his diamond tester to the stone and it registered as genuine.

The HRD Diamond Grading Laboratory in Antwerp confirmed that the elderly lady's gem was, in fact, a 34.19-carat round, brilliant-cut diamond boasting H color, VS1 clarity and a triple excellent cut grade. Lane described the gem as larger than a British pound coin, which is equivalent to about an inch wide.

"The color, the clarity, the size… to find a 34-carat diamond is off the scale," Lane told the BBC.

Lane explained that the woman had nearly tossed the gem into the trash, believing it was valueless.

"She told us she'd been having a 'clearout' and that it nearly went in the bin before her neighbor suggested bringing her items to us to get valued," Lane said.

Featonby's Auctioneers is promoting the diamond as “The Secret Stone," and will be offering it for sale during a single-lot auction on November 30 at the auction house's Newcastle location. Featonby's estimates the diamond will sell in the range of £1.6 million ($2.1 million) to £2 million ($2.7 million).

Credits: Images courtesy of Featonbys.