Nina Simone

American singer, songwriter and pianist and civil rights activist (1933–2003)

Audience757K
Fame77.5
Momentum0.0

Source-basedStable

757K youtube followers

Audience757K
Fame77.5
Momentum0.0
Wikipedia88.8K

Lived 1933–2003, aged 70United States

United States MusiciansSinger / Musician

Biggest on YouTube
757K
@@ninasimonemusic
Wikipedia
75 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1933–2003
Aged 70
Known for
What Happened, Miss Si…
2015

Summary

Updated 2026-06-12

A classical pianist who turned to nightclub work to survive, then found her voice—literally—and became one of the sharpest instruments of the civil rights movement, fusing Bach with blues and gospel into something no one had heard before.

Biography

About

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, the sixth of eight children in North Carolina, trained for the concert stage and aimed for Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, but was denied admission—she believed because of her race. To earn a living, she took a job playing piano at an Atlantic City nightclub in the late 1950s, adopting the name Nina Simone to hide the work from her family. When the club required her to sing, a jazz vocalist was born. Her 1958 debut Little Girl Blue launched a catalog that stretched past 40 albums by 1974, including a 1959 hit with "I Loves You, Porgy." Through the civil right…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Nina Simone

Nina Simone

said1991

What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did.

— I Put a Spell on You (1991)

Nina Simone

said1991

This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.

— I Put a Spell on You (1991)

Nina Simone

said1991

It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution - real girl's talk.

— I Put a Spell on You (1991)

Nina Simone

said1991

It was at this time, in the mid-sixties, that I first began to feel the power and spirituality I could connect with when I played in front of an audience.

— I Put a Spell on You (1991)

Nina Simone

said1991