Genres: Seasonal,Electronica/Dance,Jazz,Soul/R&B,Vocals,Soundtracks,Blues

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina. At the age of 3, she started playing the piano. Her family was very poor and her mother’s employer heard Nina play and offered to pay for her piano lessons. She also set up a scholarship fund for her later education as well.

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Nina Simone

“I always knew I was young, gifted and black, I just wanted the world to know.” She is jazz, blues, and classical music with a lot of soul. Known as the High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone was a civil rights activist, singer/songwriter, musical arranger, and pianist.

The Early Years

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina. At the age of 3, she started playing the piano. Her family was very poor and her mother’s employer heard Nina play and offered to pay for her piano lessons. She also set up a scholarship fund for her later education as well. She paid her first concert debut at a classical recital when she was 12 years old.

It was at this recital that Nina had her first involvement in the Civil Rights movement when her parents were forced to move to the back of the concert, she refused to play until her parents were back in the front row. When Simone was 17, she decided to move to Philadelphia to audition for the Curtis Institute, but was rejected due to the fact that she was black.

This fueled her passion for Civil Rights and since then she was an advocate. She later attended Juilliard School of Music in New York, and supported herself by giving piano lessons and singing back up.  

Musical Career

To make ends meet Nina would play at the Midtown Bar & Grill in Atlantic City. She then started to use her stage name, Nina Simone, because she didn’t want to embarrass her mother. She began to play the blues, jazz and classical music, slowly but surely creating a name for herself. Nina Simone recorded her first record in 1958, called “I Loves You Porgy.” This is record went on to become her only hit to make the Billboard Top 40 in the U.S.  

She later released her album, Little Girl Blue released under Bethlehem Records. Following the success of the album, Nina Simone left Bethlehem and signed a recording deal with Colpix Records. She went on to record more than 40 albums, her most famous songs are “Sinnerman,” “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” “Four Women,” My Baby Cares for Me,” “I Put a Spell on You,” and “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl.”  

In 1970, Simone relocated to Barbados and had a long time affair with Errol Barrow, the Prime Minister of Barbados. She later lived in Liberia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and settled in France. She released her last album in 1978, titled It Is Finished, and Baltimore, released in 1978. While in France, she recorded Fodder On My Wings, and played at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club and recorded Live at Ronnie Scott’s in 1984. I Put a Spell on You, an autobiography was published in 1992 and Nina Simone released her last album in 1993, titled A Single Woman.

Civil Rights Activists

During a concert in 1964, Nina Simone publicly addressed racism and inequality in America with her song, “Mississippi Goddam.” This song is a direct response for the senseless church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama and the assassination of Medgar Evars. She also wrote a song titled, “Old Jim Crow.” She was banned from playing in certain cities in the South as well as her songs not getting any radio play. Nina Simone was a radical and called for a violent revolution and was opposed to the non-violent approach of Martin Luther King, Jr. She went on to record, “Blacklash Blues” and her own rendition of “Strange Fruit.” Nina Simone, later released Nuff Said, and dedicated the song, “Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead),” to Martin Luther King.

A life of tragedy

Throughout her child her, her father was very ill and from time to time would be bed ridden. It is believed that her mother suffered from a mental disorder believed to be Alzheimer’s. Unbeknownst to many of her family, friends, and family, Nina Simone was diagnosed with bipolar and multiple personality disorder in the 1960’s. She later was diagnosed with schizophrenia and refused treatment. In 1993, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and died in her home in France on April 21, 2003, in her sleep. Her ashes were scattered across the continent of Africa.

Did You Know…

… Nina Simone relocated to Barbados to avoid prosecution for tax evasion in the U.S.

… Nina Simone sold the rights to her first album, Little Girl Blue, for $3000, and was cut out of a million dollars in royalties.

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