[Credit: Matt Wilson / The Daily Show]

October 19, 2023 - - Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens was the featured guest on The Daily Show last night. She sat down for an interview with guest host Michael Kosta to talk about her career, new album You’re The One and her song “Another Wasted Life” - which she also performed on the show. 

Watch the full 11-minute interview and performance here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDv3H2R4sBU (interview)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1hW_yt0IGw (performance)

Released in August, You’re The One (Nonesuch) is Giddens’ first album of all original songs and has received major acclaim. “Another Wasted Life,” featured on the album, was inspired by the tragic story of Kalief Browder. Browder was wrongfully incarcerated at New York City’s Rikers Island for three years, where he was subjected to nearly two years of solitary confinement. Giddens wrote it as a reminder of the human toll exacted by wrongful convictions and the importance of prison reform.  

She has also collaborated with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project on a fundraising initiative and a music video for "Another Wasted Life,” released earlier this month on the 10th annual Wrongful Conviction Day. The video features 22 wrongfully convicted people, clients of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. It aims to raise awareness for the stories and voices of those who have experienced the injustices of the criminal legal system. 

Watch “Another Wasted Life”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ2_2A4vP4I. More information on the video and collaboration can be found here: https://rhiannongiddens.com/another-wasted-life 

This coming Saturday, October 21, Giddens will also host the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD broadcast of the opera Dead Man Walking, based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir. The broadcast will be shown in movie theaters worldwide at 12:55pm ET that day, with an encore at 1pm ET on October 25. The series is shown in over 2000 theaters in over 50 countries around the world. More information and participating theaters can be found here. 

Since August, Giddens has appeared on Today Show, CBS Saturday, CBS Mornings, has been profiled by the New York Times, Vulture’s “A Long Talk,” NPR’s Morning Edition, the Associated Press, GRAMMY.com, American Songwriter and Garden & Gun, with additional coverage and reviews from Variety, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, NPR Music and more. Giddens’ touring continues into next year with headlining shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York City and the Ace Theater in Los Angeles. She was also recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her collaborative opera, Omar, along with Michael Abels. Giddens is also a host on Arts Talk, a new PBS program on which she, Elvis Costello and Brian Stokes Mitchell discuss their careers. She was also recently featured on Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business list. Giddens is also the Artistic Director of Silkroad, an organization and Ensemble, with a project dedicated to performing in prisons (Project MUSIC).

Praise for You’re The One

"One of Americana music's most vital voices expands her sound without abandoning her roots"

—Rolling Stone

"It's a hoot - you see her humor, you see her attitude - it's so fun on this record"

— Ann Powers, NPR Music - All Songs Considered

“The most broadly inviting work of Giddens’ career, a potent stew of folk, country, rock, soul and Cajun”

— Associated Press

“‘Yet to Be’ shows Giddens at her best: allowing the musical textures to enliven and elaborate the story she’s telling, drawing on threads from the past to communicate a pressing immediacy that feels all her own”

— Pitchfork

“Giddens fans have happily followed her down the paths of world music and even opera, and there won’t be many objections if, for our most accomplished musical journeywoman, her maps now bring her back closer to Bristol, Virginia, or to Bourbon or Beale Streets"

— Variety

“It’s a deeply fun album that beckons the listener’s attention immediately”

— Paste

"One of the most important, and as this proves, versatile artists of our times. Certainly the crowning achievement of her three recordings so far, we’re left wondering if there is anything she can’t do"

— Glide

Upcoming tour dates: https://rhiannongiddens.com/tour