Nina Simone: 10 moments that defined her career

Delve into our timeline of the "High Priestess of Soul"

Author: Emma DoddsPublished 11th Jun 2021
Last updated 22nd Jun 2021

Nina Simone is one of the most significant figures of the last century. Not only does she have one of the most unique, recognisable voices in the history of music, but she also used her influence to affect real change for the better when it came to Civil Rights in the US.

She may have started from humble beginnings, but the "High Priestess of Soul" worked hard to accomplish what she did - and so we celebrate her achievements here with a career timeline dedicated to her life.

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Nina Simone: Her illustrious career in 10 photos

Early life

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon to Mary and Rev. John Waymon on 21st February 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, US. She was the sixth of eight children, learning to play the piano at around the age of three or four which led her to give recitals at her local church and in turn, led to her classical concert debut aged 12.

1950: Rejection from school

Upon graduating, Nina studied at the Juilliard School in New York in the hopes of earning a place at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia – but she was sadly rejected, which is believed to be on the grounds of her race, and instead took up piano lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff, a professor at the Curtis Institute. She later worked as a piano teacher and an accompanist at a vocal studio owned by Arlene Smith of The Chantels.

1954: Eunice becomes Nina

It wasn't until 1954 that Eunice Kathleen Waymon became known as Nina Simone, deriving her stage name from a boyfriend's pet name 'niña', as well as French actress Simone Signoret, using the alias to throw any suspecting family members off the scent as they disapproved of the genre. She quickly married fairground worker Don Ross in 1958, but regretted the marriage and it ended after just a year.

1959: Debut album 'Little Girl Blue'

Nina learned George Gershwin's 'I Loves You, Porgy' from a Billie Holiday record as a favour to a friend, and it became her only Top 20 hit in the US charts, appearing on her debut album Little Girl Blue. Released in February 1959, the record also featured 'My Baby Just Cares for Me' and 'You'll Never Walk Alone', among others. Nina sold the album rights to Bethlehem Records, and later missed out on over $1 million in royalties.

Thankfully, her next record label signing with Colpix allowed her full creative control, and she recorded eight records – a mix of studio and live – over the next five years with them, including: The Amazing Nina Simone (1959), Nina Simone at Newport (1960), Forbidden Fruit (1961) and Nina Simone Sings Ellington (1962).

1961: Second marriage, birth of daughter and the first protest song

Nina married her second husband, Andrew Stroud, in December 1961, and they welcomed their daughter Lisa in September the following year. He became her manager, but the relationship was volatile and abusive. Nina once again changed record labels, this time signing to Philips Records – and although she'd always referenced her African-American heritage, she now felt empowered to speak directly on racial inequality in the US, writing the powerful 'Mississippi Goddam'. The song was written an hour after finding out about the racially-motivated murders of teenager Emmett Till and activist Medgar Evers in Mississippi as well as a church bombing in Alabama by white supremacists. The incident resulted in the deaths of four black children.

The song became an anthem for equality, despite being banned in many Southern states in the US, and Nina performed the song for 10,000 people at the end of the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. It appeared on the 1964 album Nina Simone in Concert along with 'Old Jim Crow', a protest song about the Jim Crow Laws. She also released her album I Put A Spell On You in 1965.

1967: Move to RCA Victor

Nina's first record with RCA Victor was Nina Simone Sings the Blues, released in 1967 and featuring 'Backlash Blues' co-written with Langston Hughes, George Gershwin's 'My Man's Gone Now' and traditional folk song 'The House of the Rising Sun', also releasing her album High Priestess of Soul the same year, garnering her the nickname among her fans. In 1968, she released 'Nuff Said!, including live recordings from her performance at the Westbury Music Fair, which she dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr., as it took place three days after his assassination.

She worked with Weldon Irvine to write the civil rights song 'To Be Young, Gifted and Black' based on the unfinished play of the same name, which appeared on her 1970 album Black Gold and was later covered by Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway.

1970: Barbados move and split from Andrew

Nina made the move to Barbados in 1970, leaving behind her wedding ring – which led her husband Andrew Stroud to assume their marriage was over. Although it's not certain exactly when they split for good, they were divorced in the early 1970s. Her last album for RCA, It Is Finished, was released in 1974, and she stayed out of the recording studio until 1978, when she was encouraged to do so for CTI Records. Baltimore was released in January 1978, and throughout the 1980s, Nina became a regular performer at the world-famous Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, recording the live album Live at Ronnie Scott's in 1984.

1988: Moved to the Netherlands

Having lived throughout Europe for much of the 1980s, Nina moved to the Netherlands in 1988, choosing the relatively quiet Nijmegen to live in for the next few years, near to a friend who was able to help look after her when she needed it. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but was able to live a relatively quiet life as most people in Nijmegen did not know of her, before relocating to Amsterdam in 1991.

1993: Settling in France and final album

Nina finally settled in the South of France in 1993, choosing to live in the Aix-en-Provence in the Bouches-du-Rhône. She also released what would be her final album, A Single Woman, in 1993, featuring songs such as 'Papa, Can You Hear Me?' from the film Yentl and 'The Folks Who Live on the Hill'. Apparently, she declared to the audience at a Newark show in 1998 that she would not be returning to the US from France again.

2003: Death

Nina had suffered from breast cancer for years, and eventually passed away in her sleep at the age of 70 on 21st April 2003. Her funeral was held four days later on 25th April at the Lady of the Assumption Church in Carry-le-Rouet, before being cremated in Marseille. Her ashes were spread across many African countries at her request.