Nina Simone

Singer / Songwriter
Date Of Birth:
21 February 1933
Date Of Death:
21 April 2003
cancer
Place Of Birth:
Tryon, North Carolina
Best Known As:
Eclectic singer of "I Loves You Porgy" and "Mississippi Goddam"

Name at birth: Eunice Kathleen Waymon

Nina Simone was a classically trained pianist who became a famous nightclub singer thanks to an early hit, 1958's "I Loves You Porgy." A powerful and eclectic talent known as the "High Priestess of Soul," she interpreted and composed classical, jazz, pop, gospel, folk and blues songs of love and bitterness and earned a worldwide following over a 50-year career. A poor black girl from the American south, Nina Simone was enough of a musical prodigy that community patrons financially supported her musical education. She went to the Julliard School of Music in New York and earned a living as a pianist, accompanying singers and playing in nightclubs. She began singing in 1954, and audiences loved her deep voice, raw emotions and soulful interpretations of standards. Simone was a self-described diva of the temperamental genius variety, and she so detested racial injustice in the United States she lived abroad after 1974 (in Barbados, Africa, Switzerland and, finally, France). In the 1990s a surge of popularity created a new generation of Simone fans. Her records made the jazz charts again and she was heard in TV commercials, movies and hip-hop samples. Some of her more well-known songs are: "My Baby Just Cares For Me," "I Put A Spell On You," "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," "See Line Woman," "Sinnerman" and "Mississippi Goddam." A documentary about her life, What Happened, Miss Simone?, was nominated for an Oscar in 2015.
Extra Credit

The story of her stage name is that she chose Nina because it means “small,” and Simone after French actress Simone Signoret… In 1989 she worked with Pete Townshend on his musical The Iron Horse… Simone held two honorary doctorate degrees (in music and humanities) and preferred to be called Dr. Nina Simone.

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