Nina Simone.

At age three, Eunice Kathleen Waymon began playing the piano in Tryon, North Carolina, where she was born on February 21, 1933, the sixth of seven children. Her father, John Devan Waymon, and mother, Mary Irvin Waymon, encouraged her early talent. She later studied at the Juilliard School in New York, training in classical piano. Her younger brother Sam Waymon also pursued music. At Allen School, a private school in Asheville, she developed her skills before moving to Atlantic City, where she adopted the stage name Nina Simone to avoid family embarrassment over performing in nightclubs.

Nina Simone’s career breakthrough came with her 1958 recording of I Loves You, Porgy, from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, which became her first hit single. She blended classical, jazz, and blues into a unique sound, often weaving protest into her music. In the 1960s, she released civil rights anthems like Mississippi Goddam and Young, Gifted and Black. She appeared in films such as the 1993 Point of No Return, the 2010 Repo Men, and the 2006 Miami Vice, often playing herself. She lived in Barbados, Switzerland, France, and Liberia before settling in the south of France in 1993.

Nina Simone was married twice: first to Donald Ross from December 1958 to 1960, and then to Andrew Stroud from December 1961 to 1971; Stroud also served as her manager. She had one daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, born in 1962, who became a Broadway actress, starring in Elton John’s Aida. Simone had a reputation for being moody and difficult. In 1995, she received a suspended eight-month jail sentence for firing a shotgun at noisy teenagers near her home in Bouc-Bel-Air, France. Her brother Sam Waymon was also a musician and close confidant.

Inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, Nina Simone’s impact is felt across generations. Canadian singer Kellylee Evans paid homage with a 2010 album titled Nina. The documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? from 2015 brought her story to a new generation. She is remembered as the High Priestess of Soul, who used her music to demand justice and equality.