Nina Simone was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.
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| Birth name | Eunice Kathleen Waymon |
| Born | February 21, 1933 Tryon, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Died | April 21, 2003 (aged 70) Carry-le-Rouet, France |
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| Years active | 1954–2003 |
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| Website | ninasimone.com |
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WHAT HAPPENED MISS SIMONE Documentary Official Trailer
Clips From Documentary by Director Liz Garbus
Nina Simone Her musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.
Simone's social commentary was not limited to the civil rights movement; the song "Four Women" exposed the Eurocentric appearance standards imposed on black women in America, as it explored the internalized dilemma of beauty that is experienced between four black women with skin tones ranging from light to dark. She explains in her autobiography I Put a Spell on You (p. 117) that the purpose of the song was to inspire black women to define beauty and identity for themselves without the influence of societal impositions.
Honors
In 2002, the city of Nijmegen, Netherlands, named a street after her, as "Nina Simone Street": she had lived in Nijmegen between 1988 and 1990. On August 29, 2005, the city of Nijmegen, the De Vereeniging concert hall, and more than 50 artists (among whom were Frank Boeijen, Rood Adeo, and Fay Claassen) honored Simone with the tribute concert Greetings from Nijmegen.
Simone was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
In 2010, a statue in her honor was erected on Trade Street in her native Tryon, North Carolina.
Simone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.
