Nina Simone#On soundtracks

Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina; the sixth of eight children in a respected family.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Cohodas|2010|p=5}} Her father, John Divine Waymon, worked as a barber and dry-cleaner as well as an entertainer. Her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist preacher.[https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/nina-simone Mariana Brandman, "Nina Simone", National Women's History Museum]. Retrieved May 12, 2022 Simone began playing piano at the age of three or four; the first song she learned was "God Be With You, Till We Meet Again".{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Cohodas|2010|p=16}} Demonstrating a talent with the piano, she performed at her local church. Her concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was 12. Simone later said that during this performance, her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Cohodas|2010|p=37}} She said that she refused to play until her parents were moved back to the front,{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|p=26}}.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Hampton|2004|p=15}}. and that the incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.{{cite magazine |last1=Shatz |first1=Adam |title=The Fierce Courage of Nina Simone |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/03/10/fierce-courage-nina-simone/ |website=The New York Review of Books |access-date=February 7, 2018 |date=March 10, 2016}} Simone's music teacher helped establish a special fund to pay for her education.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|p=21}}. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist her continued education. With the help of this scholarship money, she was able to attend Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina where she graduated as the valedictorian.{{cite web|url=https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/nina-simone|work=womenshistory.org|title=Nina Simone|author=Mariana Brandman|year=2022}}

After her graduation, Simone spent the summer of 1950 at the Juilliard School as a student of Carl Friedberg, preparing for an audition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her application, however, was denied. Only three of 72 applicants were accepted that year,{{cite news |url=http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20150816_Curtis_and_the_case_of_Nina_Simone.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527143034/http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/peter_dobrin/20150816_Curtis_and_the_case_of_Nina_Simone.html |archive-date=May 27, 2018 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |title=Curtis Institute and the case of Nina Simone |author=Peter Dobrin |date=August 16, 2015 |access-date=April 13, 2019 |url-status=bot: unknown }} but as her family had relocated to Philadelphia in the expectation of her entry to Curtis, the blow to her aspirations was particularly heavy. For the rest of her life, she claimed that her application had been denied because of racial prejudice, a charge the staff at Curtis have denied, particularly as Blanche Burton-Lyles and George Walker had both studied at Curtis.

Discouraged, she took private piano lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff, a professor at Curtis, but never could re-apply. At the time the Curtis Institute did not accept students over 21. She took a job as a photographer's assistant, found work as an accompanist at Arlene Smith's vocal studio, and taught piano from her home in Philadelphia.

In order to fund her private lessons, Simone performed at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey, whose owner insisted that she sing as well as play the piano, which increased her income to $90 a week. In 1954, she adopted the stage name "Nina Simone". "Nina", derived from niña, was a nickname given to her by a boyfriend named Chico,{{cite web |last1=Light |first1=Alan |title=Episode 3, What Happened, Miss Simone?, Book of the Week - BBC Radio 4 |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hd1y3 |website=BBC |access-date=March 9, 2017}} and "Simone" was taken from the French actress Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the 1952 movie Casque d'Or.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|BarónALio-Lambert|2006|p=56}} Knowing her mother would not approve of her playing "the Devil's music", she used her new stage name to remain undetected. Simone's mixture of jazz, blues, and classical music in her performances at the bar earned her a small but loyal fan base.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|pp=48–52}}

In 1958, she befriended and married Don Ross, a beatnik who worked as a fairground barker, but quickly regretted their marriage.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/nina-simone-730232.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223155110/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/nina-simone-730232.html |archive-date=February 23, 2009 |location=London, UK |work=The Independent |title=Nina Simone obituary |url-status=dead |date=April 23, 2003}} Playing in small clubs in the same year, she recorded George Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), which she learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only Billboard top 20 success in the United States, and her debut album Little Girl Blue followed in February 1959 on Bethlehem Records.{{cite news |title=February Album Releases |url=https://americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Cash-Box-IDX/50s/1959/CB-1959-02-14-OCR-Page-0027.pdf |access-date=September 26, 2019 |work=The Cash Box |publisher=The Cash Box Publishing Co. Inc., NY |date=February 14, 1959}}{{cite web |last1=Callahan |first1=Mike |last2=Edwards |first2=David |title=The Bethlehem Records Story |url=https://www.bsnpubs.com/king/bethlehem/bethlehemstory.html |publisher=Both Sides Now Publications |access-date=September 26, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727212613/https://www.bsnpubs.com/king/bethlehem/bethlehemstory.html |archive-date=July 27, 2018 |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last1=Popoff |first1=Martin |title=Goldmine Record Album Price Guide |date=2009 |publisher=Penguin |location=London |isbn=9781440229169 |page=2123 |edition=6th}} Because she had sold her rights outright for $3,000, Simone lost more than $1 million in royalties (notably for the 1980s re-release of her version of the jazz standard "My Baby Just Cares for Me") and never benefited financially from the album's sales.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|p=60}}.

After the success of Little Girl Blue, Simone signed a contract with producer Hecky Krasnow at Colpix Records and recorded a multitude of studio and live albums. Colpix relinquished all creative control to her, including the choice of material that would be recorded, in exchange for her signing the contract with them. After the release of her live album Nina Simone at Town Hall, Simone became a favorite performer in Greenwich Village.{{cite book |last=Dorian |first=Lynskey |date=2010 |title=33Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs |location=London |publisher=Faber and Faber |page=94 |isbn=978-0-571-24134-7}} By this time, Simone performed pop music only to make money to continue her classical music studies and was indifferent about having a recording contract. She kept this attitude toward the record industry for most of her career.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|p=65}}

Simone married Andrew Stroud, a detective with the New York Police Department, in December 1961. In a few years he became her manager and the father of her daughter Lisa, but Simone later claimed that he abused her psychologically and physically.{{Cite web |url=https://riverdalepress.com/stories/andrew-stroud-was-lieutenant-and-manager-to-nina-simone,50725 |title=Andrew Stroud was lieutenant and manager to Nina Simone (obituary) |date=July 25, 2012 |work=The Riverdale Press |access-date=October 25, 2020}} Simone said that Stroud treated her "like a work horse" in an interview with the BBC in 1999.

{{multiple image|direction=horizontal|align=right|total_width=350|image1=Nina Simone 1965 - restoration1.jpg|image2=Nina Simone (1965).jpg|footer=Simone during a photoshoot in 1965}}

In 1964, Simone changed record distributors from Colpix, an American company, to the Dutch Philips Records, which meant a change in the content of her recordings. She had always included songs in her repertoire that drew on her African-American heritage, such as "Brown Baby" by Oscar Brown and "Zungo" by Michael Olatunji on her album Nina at the Village Gate in 1962. On her debut album for Philips, Nina Simone in Concert (1964), for the first time she addressed racial inequality in the United States in the song "Mississippi Goddam". This was her response to the June 12, 1963, murder of Medgar Evers and the September 15, 1963, bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young black girls and partly blinded a fifth. She said that the song was "like throwing ten bullets back at them", becoming one of many other protest songs written by Simone. The song was released as a single, and it was boycotted in some{{vague|date=August 2018}} southern states.{{cite web |url=http://www.seeingblack.com/2003/x060403/nina_simone.shtml |title=Nina Simone: She Cast a Spell—and Made a Choice |publisher=SeeingBlack.com|access-date=August 14, 2007 |last=Neal |first=Mark Anthony |date=June 4, 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715151155/http://www.seeingblack.com/2003/x060403/nina_simone.shtml |archive-date=July 15, 2007 }}{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|pp=90–91}}. Promotional copies were smashed by a Carolina radio station and returned to Philips.{{cite book |last=Ford |first=Tanisha C. |title=Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul |page=86}}

She later recalled how "Mississippi Goddam" was her "first civil rights song" and that the song came to her "in a rush of fury, hatred and determination". The song challenged the belief that race relations could change gradually and called for more immediate developments: "me and my people are just about due." It was a key moment in her path to Civil Rights activism.{{cite journal |last=Feldstein |first=Ruth |author-link=Ruth Feldstein |year=2005 |title="I Don't Trust You Anymore": Nina Simone, Culture, and Black Activism in the 1960s |jstor=3660176 |journal=The Journal of American History |volume=91 |issue=4 |pages=1349–1379|doi=10.2307/3660176 }} "Old Jim Crow", on the same album, addressed the Jim Crow laws. After "Mississippi Goddam", a civil rights message was the norm in Simone's recordings and became part of her concerts. As her political activism rose, the rate of release of her music slowed.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Simone performed and spoke at civil rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches.{{cite web |url=http://www.boscarol.com/ninasimone/pages/nina/chrono.php |title=The Nina Simone Database: Timeline |access-date=July 5, 2010 |year=2010}} Like Malcolm X, her neighbor in Mount Vernon, New York, she supported black nationalism and advocated violent revolution rather than Martin Luther King Jr.'s non-violent approach.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003}}. She hoped that African Americans could use armed combat to form a separate state, though she wrote in her autobiography that she and her family regarded all races as equal.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|pp=100, 109, 110}}File:Nina Simone 1969.jpg in Amsterdam, Netherlands in March 1969]]

In 1967, Simone moved from Philips to RCA Victor. She sang "Backlash Blues" written by her friend, Harlem Renaissance leader Langston Hughes, on her first RCA Victor album, Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967). On Silk & Soul (1967), she recorded Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Turning Point". The album 'Nuff Said! (1968) contained live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair of April 7, 1968, three days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. She dedicated the performance to him and sang "Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)", a song written by her bass player, Gene Taylor.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|pp=114–115}} In 1969, she performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival in Harlem's Mount Morris Park. The performance was recorded and is featured in Questlove's 2021 documentary Summer of Soul.{{cite news |last1=Deggans |first1=Eric |title='Summer Of Soul' Celebrates A 1969 Black Cultural Festival Eclipsed By Woodstock |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/07/01/1010306918/summer-of-soul-questlove-movie-review-harlem-cultural-festival |work=NPR.org |date=July 1, 2021 |language=en}}{{cite web|url=https://greenpleasantland.com|title=Parks and Recreation: Harlem at a Crossroads in the Summer of '69|author=Greene, Bryan|publisher=Poverty and Race Research Action Council|date=June 2017}}

Simone and Weldon Irvine turned the unfinished play To Be Young, Gifted and Black by Lorraine Hansberry into a civil rights song of the same name. She credited her friend Hansberry with cultivating her social and political consciousness. She performed the song live on the album Black Gold (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and renditions of the song have been recorded by Aretha Franklin (on her 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black) and Donny Hathaway. When reflecting on this period, she wrote in her autobiography: "I felt more alive then than I feel now because I was needed, and I could sing something to help my people."{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Cohodas|2010|p=345}}

In an interview for Jet magazine, Simone stated that her controversial song "Mississippi Goddam" harmed her career. She claimed that the music industry punished her by boycotting her records.{{cite periodical |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7EDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA54 |magazine= Jet |title=Nina Simone reveals: 'Mississippi Goddam' song 'hurt my career' |date=March 24, 1986 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |language=en |pages=54–55 |volume=70 | number=1 |editor-first= Sylvia P. |editor-last=Flanagan | display-editors= etal}} Hurt and disappointed, Simone left the US in September 1970, flying to Barbados and expecting her husband and manager Stroud to communicate with her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance, and the fact that she had left behind her wedding ring, as an indication of her desire for a divorce. As her manager, Stroud was in charge of Simone's income. When Simone returned to the United States, she learned that a warrant had been issued for her arrest for unpaid taxes (allegedly unpaid as a protest against her country's involvement with the Vietnam War) and fled to Barbados to evade the authorities and prosecution.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|pp=120–122}} Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time and had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|pp=129–134}}{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Brun-Lambert|2006|p=231}}. A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, then persuaded her to go to Liberia.{{cite news |last1=Dargis |first1=Manohla |date=June 23, 2015 |title=Review: 'What Happened, Miss Simone?' Documents Nina Simone's Rise as Singer and Activist |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/24/movies/review-what-happened-miss-simone-documents-nina-simones-rise-as-singer-and-activist.html |access-date=July 17, 2018 |work=The New York Times |language=en}} When Simone relocated, she abandoned her daughter Lisa in Mount Vernon.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/10-things-we-learned-from-new-nina-simone-doc-59571/ |title=10 Things We Learned From New Nina Simone Doc |last=Lee |first=Christina |date=June 29, 2015 |magazine=Rolling Stone }} Lisa eventually reunited with Simone in Liberia, but, according to Lisa, her mother was physically and mentally abusive.{{cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/nina-simone-daughter-details-pain-abuse-netflix-article-1.2268391|title=Nina Simone's daughter details pain and abuse in a Netflix documentary|last=Daniels|first=Karu F.|date=June 24, 2015|website=New York Daily News}} The abuse was so unbearable that Lisa became suicidal and she moved back to New York to live with her father.File:Nina Simone14.JPG, France, May 1982|240x240px]]

Simone recorded her last album for RCA, It Is Finished, in 1974, and did not make another record until 1978, when she was persuaded to go into the recording studio by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor. The result was the album Baltimore, which, while not a commercial success, was fairly well received critically and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output.{{cite web |url=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18123 |title=All about Jazz: review "Fodder on My Wings" & "Baltimore" |last=Sunderland |first=Celeste |date=July 1, 2005 |access-date=August 5, 2007}} Her choice of material retained its eclecticism, ranging from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl". Four years later, Simone recorded Fodder on My Wings on a French label, Studio Davout.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

During the 1980s, Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, where she recorded the album Live at Ronnie Scott's in 1984. Although her early on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging with her audiences sometimes, by recounting humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and by soliciting requests.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} By this time she stayed everywhere and nowhere. She lived in Liberia, Barbados and Switzerland and eventually ended up in Paris. There she regularly performed in a small jazz club called Aux Trois Mailletz for relatively small financial reward. The performances were sometimes brilliant and at other times Nina Simone gave up after fifteen minutes. Often she was too drunk to sing or play the piano properly. At other times she scolded the audience,Alferink, Sonja (March/April 2015), [https://sonjaalferink.nl/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/JAZZ02_SabrinaStarke-P.pdf "Diva in de polder"], Sabrina Starke, pp. 110–115. so that manager Raymond Gonzalez, guitarist Al Schackman and Gerrit de Bruin, a Dutch friend of hers, decided to intervene.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

In 1987, Simone scored a major European hit with the song "My Baby Just Cares for Me". Recorded by her for the first time in 1958, the song was used in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume in Europe, leading to a re-release of the recording. The song reached number 4 on the UK's NME singles chart, giving Simone a brief surge in popularity in the UK and elsewhere.

File:Hotel Belvoir Nijmegen. Residence of Nina Simone between 1988 and 1991. Graadt van Roggenstraat.jpg, Netherlands; Simone's apartment between 1988 and 1991 was next to this building.|230x230px]]

In the spring of 1988, Simone moved to Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She bought an apartment next to the Belvoir Hotel with views of the Waalbrug and Ooijpolder, with the help of her friend Gerrit de Bruin, who lived with his family a few corners away. Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by a friend of De Bruin, who prescribed Trilafon (perphenazine) for her. Despite the illness, it was generally a happy time for Simone in Nijmegen, where she could lead a fairly anonymous life. Only a few recognized her; most Nijmegen people did not know who she was. Slowly but surely her life started to improve, and she was even able to make money from the Chanel commercial after a legal battle. In 1991 Nina Simone exchanged Nijmegen for Amsterdam, where she lived for two years with friends and Hammond.{{cite web|url=http://petesboogie.blogspot.com/2015/12/nina-simone-in-nijmegen.html|language=nl|last=Schong|first=Peter|date=December 11, 2015|website=petesboogie.blogspot.com|title=Nina Simone in Nijmegen: toevluchtsoord aan de Waal}}{{unreliable source?|date=February 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.gelderlander.nl/nijmegen/het-nijmeegse-geluk-van-nina-simone~a158f193/|title=Het Nijmeegse geluk van Nina Simone|work=De Gelderlander|language=nl|date=August 13, 2010}}

In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in southern France (Bouches-du-Rhône).{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/nl/article/de-nederlandse-jaren-van-nina-simone/ |title=De Nederlandse jaren van Nina Simone ("The Dutch Years of Nina Simone") |last=Fortuin |first=Fiona |date=November 27, 2015 |website=Noisey |language=nl |access-date=December 15, 2018}} In the same year, her final album, A Single Woman, was released. She variously contended that she married or had a love affair with a Tunisian around this time, but that their relationship ended because, "His family didn't want him to move to France, and France didn't want him because he's a North African."Sources:

• {{cite interview |last=Bardin |first=Brantley |subject-link=Nina Simone |title=Legend-with-an-attitude Nina Simone breaks her silence. And you'd better listen. |url=https://www.summerwindproductions.com/nina/dramaturgical/magazines.html |date=1997 |work=Details |access-date=March 4, 2020}}
• :Relevant remarks:
• ::Bardin: "You've been married and divorced and had many romances. Do you still get around?"
• ::Simone: "I had an intense love affair with a Tunisian boy last year, but I don't think I want to get involved for a long time again because he opened me up like a volcano, and it almost put me under."
• {{cite news |last=Hunter |first=Kim D. |date=2003 |title=Nina Simone: And She Meant Every Word of It! |url=https://solidarity-us.org/atc/105/p596/ |work=Solidarity |access-date=March 4, 2020 |quote=In her late sixties, she claimed to have a 'volcanic' love affair with a young Tunisian. }}
• Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/8olEruTT_io Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20170427191210/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8olEruTT_io&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media |people=Sebastian, Tim |date=1999 |title=Nina Simone on BBC HARDtalk |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8olEruTT_io |access-date=March 4, 2020 |time=4:45 }}{{cbignore}}
• :Relevant remarks:
• ::Sebastian: "You've been married before."
• ::Simone: "I've been married twice."
• ::Sebastian: "Have you been unlucky at love?"
• ::Simone: "Yeah—unlucky at marriages. Not so unlucky at love."
• ::Sebastian: "Lots of love, few marriages?"
• ::Simone: "Yes, two marriages."
• ::Sebastian: "Why didn't they work out?"
• ::Simone: "The music got in the way in the one where I married the cop from the United States [Andrew Stroud]. The music got in the way, and he treated me like a horse. You know, a nonstop workaholic horse. And the one in Tunisia—well, that was very hot, like a volcano. And his family didn't want him to move to France, and France didn't want him because he's a North African."
• ::Sebastian: "And the volcano didn't last?"
• ::Simone: "No, but it lasted long enough for me to never forget it, I'll tell you that." During a 1998 performance in Newark, she announced, "If you're going to come see me again, you've got to come to France, because I am not coming back."{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Cohodas|2010|p=358}} She suffered from breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet (Bouches-du-Rhône), on April 21, 2003, at the age of 70.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/22/arts/nina-simone-70-soulful-diva-and-voice-of-civil-rights-dies.html|title=Nina Simone, 70, Soulful Diva and Voice of Civil Rights, Dies|newspaper=New York Times|date=April 22, 2003}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/04/22/nina-simone-eclectic-soul-and-protest-singer-dies/546c2dc2-ac39-40ac-ae0a-f29da56aafa0/|title=Nina Simone, Eclectic Soul and Protest Singer, Dies|newspaper=Washington Post|date=April 21, 2003}} Her Catholic funeral service at the local parish was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti LaBelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, and hundreds of others. Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. Her daughter Lisa Celeste Stroud is an actress and singer who took the stage name Simone, and who has appeared on Broadway in Aida.{{cite web |url=http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/seattle/se54.html|title= Talking Broadway Seattle: Aida |access-date=August 14, 2007 |last=Frank |first=Jonathan}}

{{anchor|Personality}}

Simone's consciousness on the racial and social discourse was prompted by her friendship with the playwright Lorraine Hansberry.{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2015/06/24/416824244/the-high-priestess-of-soul-nina-simone-in-five-songs |title=The High Priestess Of Soul: Nina Simone In 5 Songs |last=Johnson |first=David Brent |date=June 24, 2015 |work=National Public Radio Jazz }} Simone stated that during her conversations with Hansberry "we never talked about men or clothes. It was always Marx, Lenin and revolution – real girls' talk."{{cite web |url=https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/the-radical-politics-of-nina-simone |title=The Radical Politics of Nina Simone |last=Taylor-Stone |first=Chardine |date=April 21, 2021 |website=Tribune|access-date=May 2, 2021}} The influence of Hansberry planted the seed for the provocative social commentary that became an expectation in Simone's repertoire. One of Nina's more hopeful activism anthems, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", was written with collaborator Weldon Irvine in the years following the playwright's passing, acquiring the title of one of Hansberry's unpublished plays. Simone's social circles included notable black activists such as James Baldwin, Stokely Carmichael and Langston Hughes: the lyrics of her song "Backlash Blues" were written by Hughes.

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,{{cite journal |last=Tsuruta |first=Dorothy Randall |title=I Ain't about to be Non-Violent, Honey |date=1999 |journal=The Black Scholar |volume=29 |issue=2–3 |page=57|doi=10.1080/00064246.1999.11430963 }} 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 that the purpose of the song was to inspire Black women to define beauty and identity for themselves without the influence of societal impositions.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|p=117}} Chardine Taylor-Stone has noted that, beyond the politics of beauty, the song also describes the stereotypical roles that many Black women have historically been restricted to: the mammy, the tragic mulatto, the sex worker, and the angry Black woman.

Simone assembled a collection of songs that became standards in her repertoire. Some were songs that she wrote herself, while others were new arrangements of other standards, and others had been written especially for the singer. Her first hit song in America was her rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy" (1958). It peaked at number 18 on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 chart.{{cite magazine |title=Nina Simone I Loves You, Porgy Chart History |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/nina-simonbrownhart-history/hot-100/song/572536 |magazine=Billboard |access-date=February 7, 2018}}

During that same period, Simone recorded "My Baby Just Cares for Me", which would become her biggest success years later, in 1987, after it was featured in a 1986 Chanel No. 5 perfume commercial.[http://inside.chanel.com/en/#!/no5/advertising advertising]. Inside Chanel. Retrieved on October 28, 2013. A music video was created by Aardman Studios.{{cite web |url=http://boscarol.com/nina/html/where/mybabyjustcaresf.html |title=Nina Simone Web: My Baby Just Cares for Me |access-date=December 7, 2006 |last=Boscarol |first=Mauro |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116020336/http://www.boscarol.com/nina/html/where/mybabyjustcaresf.html |archive-date=November 16, 2006}} Well-known songs from her Philips albums include "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964); "I Put a Spell on You", "Ne me quitte pas" (a rendition of a Jacques Brel song), and "Feeling Good" on I Put a Spell On You (1965); and "Lilac Wine" and "Wild Is the Wind" on Wild is the Wind (1966).{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Hampton|2004|pp=196–202}}.

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and her takes on "Sinnerman" (Pastel Blues, 1965) and "Feeling Good" have remained popular in cover versions (most notably a version of the former song by The Animals), sample usage, and their use on soundtracks for various movies, television series, and video games. "Sinnerman" has been featured in the films The Crimson Pirate (1952), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), High Crimes (2002), Cellular (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Golden Door (2006), Inland Empire (2006), Harriet (2019) and Licorice Pizza (2021), as well as in TV series such as Homicide: Life on the Street (1998, "Sins of the Father"), Nash Bridges (2000, "Jackpot"), Scrubs (2001, "My Own Personal Jesus"), Chuck (2010, "Chuck vs. the Honeymooners"), Boomtown (2003, "The Big Picture"), Person of Interest (2011, "Witness"), Shameless (2011, "Kidnap and Ransom"), Love/Hate (2011, "Episode 1"), Sherlock (2012, "The Reichenbach Fall"), The Blacklist (2013, "The Freelancer"), Vinyl (2016, "The Racket"), Lucifer (2017, "Favorite Son"), and The Umbrella Academy (2019, "Extra Ordinary"), and sampled by artists such as Talib Kweli (2003, "Get By"), Timbaland (2007, "Oh Timbaland"), and Flying Lotus (2012, "Until the Quiet Comes"). The song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was sampled by Devo Springsteen on "Misunderstood" from Common's 2007 album Finding Forever, and by little-known producers Rodnae and Mousa for the song "Don't Get It" on Lil Wayne's 2008 album Tha Carter III. "See-Line Woman" was sampled by Kanye West for "Bad News" on his album 808s & Heartbreak. The 1965 rendition of "Strange Fruit", originally recorded by Billie Holiday, was sampled by Kanye West for "Blood on the Leaves" on his album Yeezus.{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/@jessica.colvin10/comparative-analysis-of-strange-fruit-and-blood-on-the-leaves-9ac2855d3e5c|title=Comparative Analysis of 'Strange Fruit' and 'Blood on the Leaves'|website=Medium|first=Jessica|last=Colvin|date=July 11, 2017|access-date=December 23, 2024}}{{Cite web|url=https://wandriawebb.medium.com/2-nina-simone-songs-brilliantly-sampled-by-rappers-158ea0faf63e|title=2 Nina Simone Songs Brilliantly Sampled By Rappers|first=Wandria|last=Webb|website=Medium|date=December 14, 2019|access-date=December 23, 2024}}

Simone's years at RCA spawned many singles and album tracks that were popular, particularly in Europe. In 1968, it was "Ain't Got No, I Got Life", a medley from the musical Hair from the album 'Nuff Said! (1968) that became a surprise hit for Simone, reaching number 2 on the UK Singles Chart and introducing her to a younger audience.{{cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/28085/nina-simone/|title=Nina Simone|publisher=Official Charts Company|access-date=February 16, 2021}}{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Hampton|2004|p=47}}. In 2006, it returned to the UK Top 30 in a remixed version by Groovefinder.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

The following single, a rendition of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody", reached the UK Top 10 in 1969. "The House of the Rising Sun" was featured on Nina Simone Sings the Blues in 1967, but Simone had recorded the song in 1961 and it was featured on Nina at the Village Gate (1962).{{cite web|url=http://boscarol.com/nina/html/where/houseoftherising.html|title=Nina Simone Web: House of the Rising Sun|access-date=December 7, 2006|last=Boscarol|first=Mauro|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061113120850/http://www.boscarol.com/nina/html/where/houseoftherising.html|archive-date=November 13, 2006}}{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Hampton|2004|pp=202–214}}.

File:NinaSimone PlayboyJazzFestival1986.jpg]]

Simone's bearing and stage presence earned her the title "the High Priestess of Soul".{{cite journal|last1=Henley|first1=Jon|last2=Campbell|first2=Duncan|date=April 22, 2003|title=Nina Simone, high priestess of soul, dies aged 70 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/apr/22/duncancampbell.jonhenley/print |journal=The Guardian|location=London}} She was a pianist, singer and performer, "separately, and simultaneously".{{citation needed|date=February 2024}} As a composer and arranger, Simone moved from gospel to blues, jazz, and folk, and to numbers with European classical styling. Besides using Bach-style counterpoint, she called upon the particular virtuosity of the 19th-century Romantic piano repertoire—Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and others. Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis spoke highly of Simone, deeply impressed by her ability to play three-part counterpoint and incorporate it into pop songs and improvisation. Onstage, she incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical element.{{cite web|url=http://fornina.com/2010/05/09/biography-by-roger-nupie-president-international-dr-nina-simone-fan-club-da-httpwww-ninasimone-com|title=Dr. Nina Simone: Biography|access-date=February 21, 2013|last=Nupie|first=Roger|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130624072347/http://fornina.com/2010/05/09/biography-by-roger-nupie-president-international-dr-nina-simone-fan-club-da-httpwww-ninasimone-com/|archive-date=June 24, 2013}} Throughout most of her life and recording career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Fleming and guitarist and musical director Al Schackman.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Simone|Cleary|2003|pp=58–59}} She was known to pay close attention to the design and acoustics of each venue, tailoring her performances to individual venues. Rolling Stone once said that Simone could "channel every facet of lived experience." Simone was often credited for her ability to express an expansive emotional range in her music, from immeasurable rage to limitless joy.{{Cite magazine |date=2023-01-01 |title=The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/ |access-date=2023-12-12 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}

Simone was perceived as a sometimes difficult or unpredictable performer, occasionally hectoring the audience if she felt they were disrespectful. Schackman would try to calm Simone during these episodes, performing solo until she calmed offstage and returned to finish the engagement. Her early experiences as a classical pianist had conditioned Simone to expect quiet attentive audiences, and her anger tended to flare up at nightclubs, lounges, or other locations where patrons were less attentive.Alan Light (2016). What Happened, Miss Simone? A Biography. Crown Archetype, {{ISBN|978-1-101-90487-9}} Schackman described her live appearances as hit or miss, either reaching heights of hypnotic brilliance or on the other hand mechanically playing a few songs and then abruptly ending concerts early.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Simone is regarded as one of the most influential recording artists of 20th-century jazz, cabaret and R&B genres.{{cite web |last=Harrington |first=Katy |date=June 30, 2015 |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/gorgeous-and-complicated-the-real-nina-simone-1.2266879 |title='Gorgeous and complicated': the real Nina Simone |newspaper=The Irish Times |access-date=March 18, 2017}} According to Rickey Vincent, she was a pioneering musician whose career was characterized by "fits of outrage and improvisational genius". Pointing to her composition of "Mississippi Goddam", Vincent said Simone broke the mold, having the courage as "an established black musical entertainer to break from the norms of the industry and produce direct social commentary in her music during the early 1960s".{{cite book |last=Vincent |first=Rickey |author-link=Rickey Vincent |year=2013 |title=Party Music: The Inside Story of the Black Panthers' Band and How Black Power Transformed Soul Music |publisher=Chicago Review Press |isbn=978-1613744956}}

Rolling Stone wrote that "her honey-coated, slightly adenoidal cry was one of the most affecting voices of the civil rights movement", while making note of her ability to "belt barroom blues, croon cabaret and explore jazz—sometimes all on a single record".{{cite magazine|author=Anon.|date=December 2, 2010| url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-singers-of-all-time-19691231/nina-simone-20101202|title=100 Greatest Singers of All Time: Nina Simone|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=March 18, 2017}} In the opinion of AllMusic's Mark Deming, she was "one of the most gifted vocalists of her generation, and also one of the most eclectic".{{cite web| last=Deming|first=Mark|date=n.d.|url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nina-simone-mn0000411761/biography|title=Nina Simone| website=AllMusic|access-date=March 18, 2017}} Creed Taylor, who wrote the liner notes for Simone's 1978 Baltimore album, said the singer possessed a "magnificent intensity" that "turns everything—even the most simple, mundane phrase or lyric—into a radiant, poetic message".{{cite news|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=September 25, 1978| url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv9b-78.php|title=Christgau's Consumer Guide|newspaper=The Village Voice|access-date=March 18, 2017}} Jim Fusilli, music critic for The Wall Street Journal, writes that Simone's music is still relevant today: "it didn't adhere to ephemeral trends, it isn't a relic of a bygone era; her vocal delivery and technical skills as a pianist still dazzle; and her emotional performances have a visceral impact."{{cite news|last1=Fusilli|first1=Jim|title=A Tribute to the Enduring Voice of Nina Simone|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-tribute-to-the-enduring-voice-of-nina-simone-1435097354|access-date=October 12, 2017|work=The Wall Street Journal|date=June 23, 2015}}

"She is loved or feared, adored or disliked", Maya Angelou wrote in 1970, "but few who have met her music or glimpsed her soul react with moderation."{{cite news|last=Lynskey|first=Dorian|date=June 22, 2015|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/22/nina-simone-documentary-what-happened-miss-simone|title=Nina Simone: 'Are you ready to burn buildings?'|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=September 3, 2018}}

Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the late 1980s.{{cite news| url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/best-of-times-worst-of-times-simone-8gbsgwxwhsv |work=The Times |location=London, UK |title=Best of Times Worst of Times Simone |first=Ria |last=Higgins |date=June 24, 2007 |access-date=May 8, 2010}}{{subscription required}} She was known for her temper and outbursts of aggression.{{cite journal|last1=Brooks|first1=D. A.|date=2011|title=Nina Simone's Triple Play|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/article/418422|journal=Callaloo|volume=34|issue=1|pages=176–197|doi=10.1353/cal.2011.0036|s2cid=162697093|url-access=subscription}} In 1985, Simone fired a gun at a record company executive, whom she accused of stealing royalties. Simone said she "tried to kill him" but "missed."{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/302438.stm|title=BBC Hard Talk: Putting Music First|last=Sebastian|first=Tim|date=March 25, 1999|work=BBC News|access-date=December 7, 2006}} In 1995, while living in France, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with an air gun after the boy's laughter disturbed her concentration and she perceived his response to her complaints as racial insults;{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2965225.stm|title=BBC Obituary: Nina Simone|date=April 21, 2003|work=BBC News|access-date=December 7, 2006}}{{cite news| url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/11/raised-voice |magazine=The New Yorker |title=A Raised Voice |first=Claudia |last=Roth Pierpont |date=August 4, 2014 |access-date= July 24, 2019}} she was sentenced to eight months in jail, which was suspended pending a psychiatric evaluation and treatment.

According to a biographer, Simone took medication from the mid-1960s onward, although this was supposedly only known to a small group of intimates.{{Harvnb|Hampton|2004|Ref=none|pp=9–13}}. After her death, the medication was confirmed as the anti-psychotic Trilafon (perphenazine), which Simone's friends and caretakers sometimes illegally mixed into her food without her knowledge when she refused to follow her treatment plan. This fact was kept out of public view until 2004 when a biography, Break Down and Let It All Out, written by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan (of her UK fan club), was published posthumously.{{cite news|first=Margaret|last=Busby|author-link=Margaret Busby|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/nina-simone-break-down-let-it-all-hang-out-by-sylvia-hampton-with-david-nathan-56157.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220621/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/nina-simone-break-down-let-it-all-hang-out-by-sylvia-hampton-with-david-nathan-56157.html |archive-date=June 21, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Don't let her be misunderstood|newspaper=The Independent|date=April 16, 2004}} Singer-songwriter Janis Ian, a one-time friend of Simone's, related in her own autobiography, Society's Child: My Autobiography, two instances to illustrate Simone's volatility: one incident in which she forced a shoe store cashier at gunpoint to take back a pair of sandals she'd already worn; and another in which Simone demanded a royalty payment from Ian herself as an exchange for having recorded one of Ian's songs, and then ripped a pay telephone out of its wall when she was refused.{{cite book |title=Society's Child: My Autobiography |last1=Ian |first1=Janis |date=2008 |publisher=Penguin |pages=246–247}}

Simone was the recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 for her interpretation of "I Loves You, Porgy". On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone.{{Harvnb|Ref=none|Hampton|2004|p=85}}.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/24/AR2005042400984.html|title= Answer Man: Kindness Turned Brutality|access-date=January 5, 2007| last=Kelly|first=John|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=April 25, 2005}}

Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities, from Amherst College and Malcolm X College.{{cite web|url=http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/70/|title=Remembering Nina Simone|access-date=December 7, 2006|last=Kolodzey|first=Jody|archive-date=April 20, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050420173444/http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/70/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://www.amherst.edu/news/specialevents/commencement/awards/name/|title= Amherst College Honorary Degree Recipients by Name|publisher=Amherst College|access-date=December 13, 2017}} She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her.{{cite web|url=http://www.williams.edu/alumni/alumnireview/fall04/Signature.pdf|title=A Diva's Spell|access-date=December 7, 2006|last=Hanson|first=Eric|year=2004|work=Williams Alumni Review|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615023246/http://www.williams.edu/alumni/alumnireview/fall04/Signature.pdf|archive-date=June 15, 2007}} She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.{{cite web|title=Nina Simone| url=https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/nina-simone|website=Rock & Roll Hall of Fame|access-date=February 7, 2018}}

Two days before her death, Simone learned she would be awarded an honorary degree by the Curtis Institute of Music, the music school that had refused to admit her as a student at the beginning of her career.

Simone has received four career Grammy Award nominations,{{cite web|title=Nina Simone| url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/nina-simone|website=GRAMMY.com|access-date=February 7, 2018|date=May 14, 2017}} two during her lifetime and two posthumously. In 1968, she received her first nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the track "(You'll) Go to Hell" from her thirteenth album Silk & Soul (1967). The award went to "Respect" by Aretha Franklin.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Simone garnered a second nomination in the category in 1971, for her Black Gold album, when she again lost to Franklin for "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)". Franklin would again win for her cover of Simone's "Young, Gifted and Black" two years later in the same category. In 2016, Simone posthumously received a nomination for Best Music Film for the Netflix documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? and in 2018 she received a nomination for Best Rap Song as a songwriter for Jay-Z's "The Story of O.J." from his 4:44 album, which contained a sample of "Four Women" by Simone.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

In 1999, Simone was given a lifetime achievement award by the Irish Music Hall of Fame, presented by Sinead O'Connor.{{Cite web |last=Peter |first=McGoran |date=2018-10-18 |title=Nina Simone was honoured at the Hot Press Awards in 1999 - BBC Radio Ulster relive the night she shook Dublin |url=https://www.hotpress.com/music/nina-simone-honoured-hot-press-awards-1999-bbc-radio-ulster-relive-night-shook-dublin-22760001 |access-date=2023-07-31 |website=Hotpress}}

In 2018, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame{{cite web|url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8070293/2018-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-inductees|title=2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees Revealed|website=Billboard.com|date=December 13, 2017|access-date=August 27, 2018}} by fellow R&B artist Mary J. Blige.{{cite web|url=http://www.vulture.com/2018/03/2018-rock-hall-howard-stern-mary-j-blige-more-presenting.html|title=Howard Stern, Mary J. Blige Among Rock Hall Induction Presenters This Year|first=Devon|last=Ivie|website=Vulture.com|date=March 31, 2018|access-date=August 27, 2018}}

In 2019, "Mississippi Goddam" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".{{cite news |last=Andrews |first=Travis M. |date=March 20, 2019 |title=Jay-Z, a speech by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and 'Schoolhouse Rock!' among recordings deemed classics by Library of Congress |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/jay-z-a-speech-by-sen-robert-f-kennedy-and-schoolhouse-rock-among-recordings-deemed-classics-by-library-of-congress/2019/03/19/f7eb08ea-4a58-11e9-9663-00ac73f49662_story.html?|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=March 25, 2019}} Simone was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2021.{{cite web | url=https://rbhalloffamemarksms.com/inductees/ | title=Inductees | R&B HOF | date=July 24, 2022 }}

In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Simone at No. 21 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.{{Cite magazine|date=January 1, 2023|title=The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/nina-simone-3-1234643179/|access-date=October 6, 2023|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US}}

Simone's music has been featured in soundtracks of various motion pictures and video games, including La Femme Nikita (1990), Point of No Return (1993), Shallow Grave (1994), The Big Lebowski (1998), Any Given Sunday (1999), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Disappearing Acts (2000), Six Feet Under (2001), The Dancer Upstairs (2002), Before Sunset (2004), Cellular (2004), Inland Empire (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Sex and the City (2008), The World Unseen (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), Home (2008), Watchmen (2009), The Saboteur (2009), Repo Men (2010), Beyond the Lights (2014), Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Nobody (2021), and A Quiet Place: Day One (2024). Frequently her music is used in remixes, commercials, and TV series including "Feeling Good", which featured prominently in the Season Four Promo of Six Feet Under (2004). Simone's "Take Care of Business" is the closing theme of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), Simone's cover of Janis Ian's "Stars" is played during the final moments of the season 3 finale of BoJack Horseman (2016),{{Cite web |last=Chaney |first=Jen |title=Deep Down, BoJack Horseman Is a Hopeful Show |url=https://www.vulture.com/2016/07/bojack-horseman-is-a-hopeful-show-deep-down.html |access-date=October 6, 2022 |website=Vulture |date=July 26, 2016 |language=en-us}} and "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" were included in the film Acrimony (2018).{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

The documentary Nina Simone: La légende (The Legend) was made in the 1990s by French filmmakers and based on her autobiography I Put a Spell on You. It features live footage from different periods of her career, interviews with family, various interviews with Simone then living in the Netherlands, and while on a trip to her birthplace. A portion of footage from The Legend was taken from an earlier 26-minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in 1969 and entitled simply Nina. Her filmed 1976 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival is available on video courtesy of Mercury Studios and is screened annually in New York City at an event called "The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone: Montreux, 1976", which is curated by Tom Blunt.{{cite news|url=http://nypress.com/pressed-for-time-the-rise-and-fall-of-nina-simone|title=Pressed for Time: The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone|first=Joshua David|last=Stein|date=March 24, 2010|newspaper=New York Press}}

Footage of Simone singing "Mississippi Goddam" for 40,000 marchers at the end of the Selma to Montgomery marches can be seen in the 1970 documentary King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis and the 2015 Liz Garbus documentary What Happened, Miss Simone?

Plans for a Simone biographical film were released at the end of 2005, to be based on Simone's autobiography I Put a Spell on You (1992) and to focus on her relationship in later life with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in 2006; Simone's daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, has since refuted the existence of a romantic relationship between Simone and Henderson on account of his homosexuality.{{cite web|url=http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/nina-simones-daughter-finally-speaks-project-is-unauthorized|title=Nina Simone's Daughter Finally Speaks: 'Project Is Unauthorized; Simone Estate Not Consulted'|first=Tambay A.|last=Obenson|date=August 16, 2012 |publisher=Indiewire Blogs: Shadow and Act: On Cinema of the African Diaspora|access-date=January 18, 2012}} Cynthia Mort (screenwriter of Will & Grace and Roseanne), wrote the screenplay and directed the 2016 film Nina, starring Zoe Saldaña, who since openly apologized for taking the controversial title role.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/movies/should-zoe-saldana-play-nina-simone-some-say-no.html|title=Stir Builds Over Actress to Portray Nina Simone|first=Tanzina|last=Vega|author-link=Tanzina Vega|date=September 2, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=January 18, 2012}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/09/13/arts/20120913-NINA.html|title=Casting the Role of Nina Simone|date=September 2, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=January 18, 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/cinema/zoe-saldana-jugee-trop-claire-pour-interpreter-nina-simone_1162155.html|title=Zoe Saldana, jugée trop claire pour interpréter Nina Simone|first=Marion|last=Garcia|date=September 17, 2012|publisher=L'Express (French)|access-date=January 18, 2012}}{{Cite web|last=Alter|first=Rebecca|date=August 5, 2020|title=Zoe Saldana Apologizes, for Real This Time, for Playing Nina Simone|url=https://www.vulture.com/2020/08/zoe-saldana-nina-simone-apology.html|access-date=November 5, 2020|website=Vulture|language=en-us}}

In 2015, two documentary features about Simone's life and music were released. The first, directed by Liz Garbus, What Happened, Miss Simone? was produced in cooperation with Simone's estate and her daughter, who served as the film's executive producer. The film was produced as a counterpoint to the unauthorized Cynthia Mort film (Nina, 2016), and featured previously unreleased archival footage. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015 and was distributed by Netflix on June 26, 2015.{{cite news|url=http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/review-what-happened-miss-simone-leaves-us-wondering-what-happens-when-what-you-love-most-haunts-you-20150623| title=Review: 'What Happened, Miss Simone' Leaves Us Wondering What Happens When What You Love Most, Haunts You|author= Tinubu, Aramide A.|date=June 23, 2015|access-date=June 27, 2015| publisher=Shadow & Act}} It was nominated on January 14, 2016, for a 2016 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.{{cite web|title=Oscars 2016 Nominations: Complete List of Nominees|url=http://www.eonline.com/news/730249/oscars-2016-nominations-complete-list-of-nominees|publisher=Eonline|date=January 14, 2016|access-date=January 14, 2016}}

The second documentary in 2015, The Amazing Nina Simone is an independent film written and directed by Jeff L. Lieberman, who initially consulted with Simone's daughter, Lisa before going the independent route and then worked closely with Simone's siblings, predominantly Sam Waymon.{{cite web|url=http://www.amazingnina.com |title=The Amazing Nina Simone - A Documentary Film By Jeff L. Lieberman |website=Amazingnina.com |access-date=December 11, 2016}}{{cite news| url = http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/exclusive-doc-the-amazing-nina-simone-ft-siblings-friends-band-members-in-post-production| title = Exclusive: 'The Amazing Nina Simone' Doc (Ft Siblings, Friends, Band Members) in Post-Production| author = Martinez, Vanessa| date = January 20, 2014| access-date = June 27, 2015| publisher = Shadow & Act}} The film debuted in cinemas in October 2015, and has since played more than 100 theaters in 10 countries.{{cite news |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/amazing-nina-simone-film-review-832317 |title='The Amazing Nina Simone': Film Review |last=DeFore |first=John |date=October 15, 2015 |newspaper=The Hollywood Reporter}}

She is the subject of Nina: A Story About Me and Nina Simone, a one-woman show first performed in 2016 at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool—a "deeply personal and often searing show inspired by the singer and activist Nina Simone"{{cite web |last1=Gardner |first1=Lyn |title=Nina review – searing tribute restarts Simone's revolution |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/oct/19/nina-a-story-about-me-and-nina-simone-review-unity-liverpool-josette-bushell-mingo |website=The Guardian |access-date=February 7, 2018 |date=October 19, 2016}}—and which in July 2017 ran at the Young Vic, before being scheduled to move to Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre.{{cite web |last1=Trueman |first1=Matt |title=Review: Nina (Young Vic) |url=http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/reviews/review-nina-young-vic_44193.html |website=WhatsOnStage.com |access-date=February 7, 2018 |date=July 25, 2017}} Simone is the focus of another play that premiered in 2016, Nina Simone: Four Women, by Christina Ham. This "play looks at Nina Simone’s shift from artist to activist after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham and the murder of Medgar Evers."{{Cite web |title=Speaking from the Heart: Playwright Christina Ham on Nina Simone: Four Women |url=https://dctheatrescene.com/2017/10/26/speaking-heart-playwright-christina-ham-nina-simone-four-women/ |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=dctheatrescene.com}}

As well as her 1992 autobiography I Put a Spell on You (1992), written with Stephen Cleary, Simone has been the subject of several books. They include Nina Simone: Break Down and Let It All Out (2004) by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan; Princess Noire (2010) by Nadine Cohodas;{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/books/excerpt-princess-noire.html|title=Excerpt {{!}} 'Princess Noire'|first=Nadine|last=Cohodas|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 18, 2010}} Nina Simone (2004) by Kerry Acker; Nina Simone, Black Is the Color (2005) by Andrew Stroud; Nina Simone (2013) by Richard Elliott; and What Happened, Miss Simone? (2016) by Alan Light.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/21/what-happened-miss-simone-andrew-light-book-review|title=What Happened, Miss Simone? by Alan Light – review|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Jude|last=Rogers|date=March 21, 2016}}

Simone inspired a book of poetry, Me and Nina, by Monica Hand,{{cite book |last1=Hand |first1=Monica |title=me and Nina |date=February 14, 2012 |publisher=Alice James Books |isbn=978-1882295906}} and is the focus of musician Warren Ellis's book Nina Simone's Gum (2021).{{cite book |title=Nina Simone's Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found |first=Warren |last=Ellis |author-link=Warren Ellis (musician) |date=2021 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0571365623}}

File:Nina Simonestraat, Nina Simonestreet Nijmegen. Netherlands.jpg

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){{cite web |url=http://3voor12.vpro.nl/lokaal/gelderland/nieuws/2005/november/nina-simone-krijgt-indrukwekkende-ode.html |title=Impressive Hommage to Nina Simone |author=Grafe, Klaas-Jan |date=November 30, 2005 |website=3voor12.vpro.nl |publisher=NPO |access-date=October 26, 2014}} honored Simone with the tribute concert Greetings from Nijmegen.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Simone was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.{{cite web |title=2009 Inductees |url=http://northcarolinamusichalloffame.org/category/inductees/2009-inductees/ |publisher=North Carolina Music Hall of Fame |access-date=September 10, 2012}}

In 2010, a statue in her honor was erected on Trade Street in her native Tryon, North Carolina.{{cite web |title=Commemorative Landscapes |url=http://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/341/ |website=DocSouth |date=March 19, 2010 |publisher=University of North Carolina}}

The promotion from the French Institute of Political Studies of Lille (Sciences Po Lille), due to obtain their master's degree in 2021, named themselves in her honor.{{clarify|date=February 2024}} The decision was made that this promotion was henceforth to be known as 'la promotion Nina Simone' after a vote in 2017.{{cite web |url=http://manufacture.paliens.org/2017/12/19/nina-simone-icone-de-la-promotion-2021/ |title=Nina Simone, icône de la promotion 2021 |website=manufacture.paliens.org |date=December 19, 2017 |language=fr-FR |access-date=January 18, 2018}}

Simone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.{{Cite magazine|last=Harwood|first=Erika|date=December 13, 2017|title=The Irony of Nina Simone Joining the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/12/nina-simone-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame|access-date=December 30, 2020|magazine=Vanity Fair|language=en-us}}

The Proms paid a homage to Nina Simone in 2019, an event called Mississippi Goddamn was performed by The Metropole Orkest at Royal Albert Hall led by Jules Buckley. Ledisi, Lisa Fischer and Jazz Trio, LaSharVu provided vocals.{{cite web |title=Homage to Nina Simone |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0007zfh |website=BBC Radio 3 |date=2019|access-date=November 5, 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Coombes |first1=Coombes |title=Mississippi Goddam: The 2019 Nina Simone Prom at the Royal Albert Hall |url=https://londonjazznews.com/2019/08/23/mississippi-goddam-the-2019-nina-simone-prom-at-the-royal-albert-hall/comment-page-1/ |website=London Jazz News |access-date=November 5, 2019 |date=August 23, 2019}} Ledisi embarked on the Nina and Me Tour throughout 2019,[https://soulbounce.com/2019/04/ledisi-looks-ahead-to-concert-tour-with-special-nina-and-me-shows/ "Ledisi Looks Ahead To Concert Tour With Special 'Nina And Me' Shows"], Soul Bounce. Retrieved June 15, 2024. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301221208/https://soulbounce.com/2019/04/ledisi-looks-ahead-to-concert-tour-with-special-nina-and-me-shows/ |date=2024-03-01 }}. and released a tribute album titled Ledisi Sings Nina (2021).[https://www.allmusic.com/album/ledisi-sings-nina-mw0003533139 Ledisi Sings Nina (AllMusic)]. AllMusic. Retrieved on July 4, 2024 Following the release of the album, she embarked on her second tribute concert titled Ledisi Sings Nina Tour in 2021.[https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/events/performances/1241/2021-07-24/ledisi-sings-nina-simone Ledisi Sings Nina Simone] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209072907/https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/events/performances/1241/2021-07-24/ledisi-sings-nina-simone |date=2023-12-09 }}. The Hollywood Bowl. Retrieved on June 15, 2024[https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2023/02/23/Ledisi-Sings-Nina-0800PM "Ledisi Sings Nina"], Carnegie Hall. Retrieved June 15, 2024. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201132539/https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2023/02/23/Ledisi-Sings-Nina-0800PM |date=2023-12-01 }}.[https://patch.com/pennsylvania/pittsburgh/ledisi-play-tribute-nina-simone-september-15-2023-8-00-pm LEDISI to Play a Tribute to Nina Simone September 15, 2023 at 8:00 pm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621070525/https://patch.com/pennsylvania/pittsburgh/ledisi-play-tribute-nina-simone-september-15-2023-8-00-pm |date=June 21, 2023 }}. Patch. Retrieved on June 15, 2024

{{Main|Nina Simone discography}}

Albums

{{col div}}

• Little Girl Blue (1959)
• The Amazing Nina Simone (1959)
• Nina Simone at Town Hall (Live and studio) (1959)
• Nina Simone at Newport (Live) (1960)
• Forbidden Fruit (1961)
• Nina at the Village Gate (Live) (1962)
• Nina Simone Sings Ellington (1962)
• Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall (Live) (1963)
• Folksy Nina (Live) (1964)
• Nina Simone in Concert (Live) (1964)
• Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964)
• I Put a Spell on You (1965)
• Pastel Blues (1965)
• Let It All Out (Live and studio) (1966)
• Wild Is the Wind (1966)
• High Priestess of Soul (1967)
• Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967)
• Silk & Soul (1967)
• 'Nuff Said! (Live and studio) (1968)
• Nina Simone and Piano (1969)
• To Love Somebody (1969)
• Black Gold (Live) (1970)
• Here Comes the Sun (1971)
• Emergency Ward (Live and studio) (1972)
• It Is Finished (Live) (1974)
• Baltimore (1978)
• Fodder on My Wings (1982)
• Nina's Back (1985)
• Live & Kickin (Live) (1985)
• Let It Be Me (Live) (1987)
• Live at Ronnie Scott's (Live) (1987)
• A Single Woman (1993)

{{col div end}}

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{cite book |last = Acker |first = Kerry |title = Nina Simone |year = 2004 | others = Introduction by Betty McCollum |publisher = Chelsea House |location= Philadelphia |isbn = 978-0-791-07456-5 }}
• {{cite book |last = Brun-Lambert|first = David |title = Nina Simone, het tragische lot van een uitzonderlijke zangeres|others = Introduction by Lisa Celeste Stroud, afterword by Gerrit de Bruin | orig-year = 2006| publisher = Sirene| location = Zwolle| language = nl| isbn = 90-5831-425-1 |date=October 2006}}
• {{cite book |last = Cohodas |first = Nadine |title = Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone |year = 2010 |publisher = Pantheon Books |location = New York |isbn = 978-0-375-42401-4 |url-access = registration |url = https://archive.org/details/princessnoiretum00coho }}
• {{cite book |last = Elliott |first = Richard |title = Nina Simone |series = Icons of Pop Music |year = 2013 |publisher = Equinox |location= Sheffield, UK |isbn = 978-1-845-53988-7 }}
• {{cite book |last1 = Hampton| first1 = Sylvia | first2 = David | last2 = Nathan | others = Introduction by Lisa Celeste Stroud|title =Nina Simone: Break Down and Let It All Out| orig-year = 2004| publisher = Sanctuary| location = London| isbn = 1-86074-552-0 |year = 2004}}
• {{cite book |last = Light |first = Alan | author-link = Alan Light |title = What Happened, Miss Simone?: A Biography |year = 2016 |publisher = Crown Archetype |location= New York |isbn = 978-1-101-90487-9 }}
• {{cite book |last=Simone |first=Nina |author2=Stephen Cleary |others= Introduction by Dave Marsh |title= I Put a Spell on You |orig-year= 1992|edition= 2nd|year= 2003|publisher= Da Capo Press |location= New York|isbn= 0-306-80525-1}}
• {{cite book |last = Stroud |first =Andy |year = 2005 |title = Nina Simone, "Black Is the Color...": A Book of Rare Photographs of Adolescence, Family and Early Career with Quotes in Her Own Words |others = Introduction by Lisa Simone Kelly |publisher = Xlibris |location = Philadelphia |isbn = 978-1-599-26670-1 }}{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}}
• {{cite book |last1=Todd |first1=Traci N. |title=Nina: A Story of Nina Simone |date=2021 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York |isbn=9781524737283 }}
• {{cite book |last = Williams |first = Richard |title = Nina Simone: Don't Let Me Be Understood |year = 2002 |publisher = Canongate |location= Edinburgh |isbn = 978-1-841-95368-7 }}

{{Sister project links|voy=no|species=no|d=Q174957|v=no|n=no|b=no|s=no|q=yes}}

• {{Official website}}
• {{Instagram}}
• [http://www.amazingnina.com The Amazing Nina Simone: A Documentary Film]
• {{allmusic}}
• {{IMDb name}}
• {{cite magazine |first= Adam |last= Shatz |date= March 10, 2016 |title= The Fierce Courage of Nina Simone |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/03/10/fierce-courage-nina-simone/ |magazine= The New York Review of Books }}

{{Nina Simone}}

{{Navboxes

|title = Awards for Nina Simone

|list =

{{Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award}}

{{2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame}}

}}

{{Portal bar|Jazz|Music|Biography}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simone, Nina}}

Category:1933 births

Category:2003 deaths

Category:20th-century African-American women singers

Category:20th-century American women singers

Category:20th-century American singers

Category:20th-century American pianists

Category:20th-century autobiographers

Category:Activists for African-American civil rights

Category:Activists from North Carolina

Category:African and Black nationalists

Category:African-American feminists

Category:American feminists

Category:African-American pianists

Category:African-American women singer-songwriters

Category:American autobiographers

Category:American contraltos

Category:American expatriates in France

Category:American expatriates in Liberia

Category:American expatriates in Switzerland

Category:American expatriates in the Netherlands

Category:American folk singers

Category:American jazz pianists

Category:American jazz singers

Category:American musicians with disabilities

Category:American political music artists

Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters

Category:American socialists

Category:American soul musicians

Category:American tax resisters

Category:American torch singers

Category:American women autobiographers

Category:American women jazz pianists

Category:American women jazz singers

Category:American women singer-songwriters

Category:Bethlehem Records artists

Category:Charly Records artists

Category:Colpix Records artists

Category:Deaths from breast cancer in France

Category:DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame members

Category:Elektra Records artists

Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners

Category:Jazz musicians from North Carolina

Category:Jazz songwriters

Category:Juilliard School alumni

Category:Nightclub performers

Category:People from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

Category:People from Tryon, North Carolina

Category:People with bipolar disorder

Category:Philips Records artists

Category:RCA Victor artists

Category:Singer-songwriters from North Carolina

Category:Singers with disabilities

Category:Soul-jazz musicians

Category:Verve Records artists