Music

Nina Simone

Born February 21, 1933 · Tryon, North Carolina · Joined the Ancestors April 21, 2003

The High Priestess of Soul — Nina Simone fused classical training with jazz, blues, and fury to create music that was both breathtakingly beautiful and unapologetically political.

Known For

Vocalist, pianist, civil rights activist

Genre

Jazz, soul, classical, blues

Key Song

Mississippi Goddam

Nina Simone, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, was a child prodigy who began playing piano at age 3. Her classical training and dreams of becoming the first Black concert pianist in America were derailed by racism when she was denied admission to the Curtis Institute of Music.

She reinvented herself as Nina Simone, performing in Atlantic City nightclubs. Her debut album, Little Girl Blue, launched a career that would span four decades and produce some of the most powerful music of the 20th century.

After the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four young girls, Simone wrote Mississippi Goddam — a searing anthem that became a rallying cry for the civil rights movement. Her music — from Feeling Good to To Be Young, Gifted and Black — remains a soundtrack for liberation.