Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, known as Nina Simone, born February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, United States, and died April 21, 2003, in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, from cancer, was an American pianist, singer, composer, and music arranger. She was also a civil rights activist. She is considered, along with Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday, one of the four greatest jazz singers in history.

Born into a Methodist family, young Eunice was drawn to classical music, but poverty and racism thwarted her ambitions. Originally seeking to become a concert pianist, she ultimately distinguished herself in diverse musical styles, including jazz, blues, classical music, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Her musical path changed direction when she was denied a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music. While performing in a small Philadelphia club, she was contacted by Bethlehem Records for a recording session, and in 1957, the song 'I Loves You, Porgy' from George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess became a major success in the United States. Her first album, Little Girl Blue, was released in 1958.

Nina Simone, who recorded some fifty albums during her career, is one of the principal exponents of vocal jazz. She performed several times at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Her original style resulted from the fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music.

In the mid-1960s, she became involved in the civil rights movement. Her music was highly influential in the struggle for equal rights being waged by Black Americans at that time in the United States. Powerful and radical, she was a source of inspiration for her generation and continues to be for those that follow.