For woman nina simone biography

Born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone was groomed into an accomplished pianist as a child, made possible by donations and fundraising efforts through family friends. After graduating high school with honors, she was awarded a one-year scholarship at the Julliard School of Music in Philadelphia. With aspirations of being a concert pianist, the year at Julliard was meant to prepare her for the entrance exam at Curtis Institute of Music also in Philadelphia.

Simone believed she was denied entry solely because she was African American. This event shaped her views on race relations and would influence her activism later in life. Fortunately, she received private piano lessons with Vladmir Sokoloff, an instructor at the Curtis Institute. Waymon worked as a maid and her employer , hearing of Simone's talent , gave them money for piano lessons.

When she was 17, Simone moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She found more racism here when she applied for a scholarship at a local college. She had to take a test, and passed it, but she was not given the scholarship. When she asked the examiner why she was not given a scholarship, the examiner told her "because you're black. After this, Simone became very passionate about the civil rights movement.

She began to earn money teaching piano and accompanying singers. She applied to study piano at the Curtis Institute , but was not successful. She believed that this too was because she was black, and because she was a woman. The owner said that she would only get the job if she would sing as well as play the piano. She did not want her mother to know that she was playing "the devil 's music", so she started using the stage name Nina Simone.

She got "Nina" from a nickname given to her by a boyfriend , and "Simone" from a French actress called Simone Signoret. She began to get fans. She had learned the song from a Billie Holiday album, and performed it as a favor for a friend. It became her only Billboard top 40 success in the United States. Simone then signed a contract with the record company Colpix Records and released several studio and live albums.

Colpix let her have control over choosing the material that she recorded. Simone made sure she had control and did not really mind whether she had a recording contract or not. She only played pop music to make money for her classical music studies. In the s, Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She began to record songs about her African-American origins and racial inequality.

During that same period, Simone recorded " My Baby Just Cares for Me ", which would become her biggest success years later, in , after it was featured in a Chanel No. Simone's years at RCA spawned many singles and album tracks that were popular, particularly in Europe. Simone's bearing and stage presence earned her the title "the High Priestess of Soul".

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. 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.

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 s". 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".

Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the late s. Simone said she "tried to kill him" but "missed. According to a biographer, Simone took medication from the mids onward, although this was supposedly only known to a small group of intimates. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her. 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, [ ] two during her lifetime and two posthumously. The award went to " Respect " by Aretha Franklin. Franklin would again win for her cover of Simone's " Young, Gifted and Black " two years later in the same category. In , " Mississippi Goddam " was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

In , Rolling Stone ranked Simone at No. 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 minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in and entitled simply Nina.

Footage of Simone singing " Mississippi Goddam " for 40, marchers at the end of the Selma to Montgomery marches can be seen in the documentary King: A Filmed Record Plans for a Simone biographical film were released at the end of , to be based on Simone's autobiography I Put a Spell on You and to focus on her relationship in later life with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in ; Simone's daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly , has since refuted the existence of a romantic relationship between Simone and Henderson on account of his homosexuality.

In , two documentary features about Simone's life and music were released. The film was produced as a counterpoint to the unauthorized Cynthia Mort film Nina , , and featured previously unreleased archival footage. 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.

For woman nina simone biography

She is the subject of Nina: A Story About Me and Nina Simone , a one-woman show first performed in at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool —a "deeply personal and often searing show inspired by the singer and activist Nina Simone" [ ] —and which in July ran at the Young Vic , before being scheduled to move to Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre.

As well as her autobiography I Put a Spell on You , written with Stephen Cleary, Simone has been the subject of several books. In , the city of Nijmegen , Netherlands, named a street after her, as "Nina Simone Street": she had lived in Nijmegen between and The promotion from the French Institute of Political Studies of Lille Sciences Po Lille , due to obtain their master's degree in , named themselves in her honor.

Simone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. American singer-songwriter — Singer songwriter pianist composer arranger activist. Donald Ross. Andy Stroud.

Musical artist. Biography [ edit ]. Simone during a photoshoot in Activism [ edit ]. Influence [ edit ]. Beyond the civil rights movement [ edit ]. Artistry [ edit ]. Simone standards [ edit ]. Performance style [ edit ]. Critical reputation [ edit ]. Health [ edit ]. Awards and recognition [ edit ]. Legacy and influence [ edit ]. Music [ edit ].

Film [ edit ]. Drama [ edit ]. Books [ edit ]. Honors [ edit ]. Discography [ edit ]. Main article: Nina Simone discography. References [ edit ]. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford University Press. National Women's History Museum. Retrieved October 15, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra. November 21, Archived from the original on March 22, Retrieved October 28, American Masters.

Archived from the original on June 19, Retrieved December 7, The New Yorker. For years, Simone also struggled with severe mental health issues and her finances, and clashed with managers, record labels and the Internal Revenue Service. Simone, who had taken a break from recording in the mids, returned in with the album Baltimore , with the title track a cover version of a Randy Newman tune.

Critics gave the album a warm reception, but it did not fare well commercially. The song thus became a Top 10 hit in Britain in She also penned her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You , which was published in Her next recording, A Single Woman , came out in Touring periodically, Simone maintained a strong fan base that filled concert halls whenever she performed.

In , she appeared in the New York tri-state area, her first trip there in five years, specifically playing at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. The New York Times critic Jon Pareles reviewed the concert, noting that "there is still power in her voice" and that the show featured "a beloved sound, a celebrated personality, and a repertory that magnifies them both.

She was joined on stage by her daughter Lisa Simone Kelly for a few songs. Lisa, from Simone's second marriage to manager Andrew Stroud, followed in her mother's footsteps. Among an array of performance accomplishments, she has appeared on Broadway in Aida , using the stage name "Simone. In her final years, reports indicated that Nina Simone was battling breast cancer.

She died at the age of 70 on April 21, , at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, France. While she may be gone, Simone left a lasting impression on the world of music, art and activism. She sang to share her truth, and her work still resonates with great emotion and power. Her deep, distinctive voice continues to be a popular choice for television and film soundtracks.