Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on 21st February 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, USA, one of eight children. Like a number of other black singers in the U.S., she was inspired as a child by Marian Anderson, and began singing at her local church, also showing great talent as a pianist. Her public debut, a piano recital, was made at the age of ten. Her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white audience members. This incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.
Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon (who lived into her late nineties) was a strict Methodist minister; her father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman and sometime barber who suffered bouts of ill-health. Mrs Waymon worked as a maid, and her employer, hearing of Nina's talent, provided funds for piano lessons for the little girl. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Eunice's continued education.
At seventeen, Simone moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she taught piano and accompanied singers. She was able to begin studying piano at New York City's prestigious Juilliard School of Music but lack of funds meant that she was unable to fulfill her dream of becoming America's first Black classical pianist. She later had an interview to study piano at the Curtis Institute, but was rejected. Simone believed this rejection, which fueled her hatred of racism, was because she was black.
Simone turned to blues and jazz after getting her start at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, taking the name Nina Simone in 1954; "Nina" was her boyfriend's nickname for her, and "Simone" was after the French actress Simone Signoret. She first came to public notice in 1959 with her wrenching rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), her only Top-Forty hit in the United States. This was soon followed by the single "My Baby Just Cares for Me" (this was also a hit in the 1980s in the United Kingdom when used for television advertisements for Chanel No 5 perfume).
Throughout the 1960s, Simone was involved in the civil rights movement and recorded a number of political songs, including "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" (later covered by Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway), "Backlash Blues", "Mississippi Goddam" (a response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama killing four black children), "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", and Kurt Weill's "Pirate Jenny", from The Threepenny Opera, re-cast in a southern town.
In 1961, Simone recorded a version of the traditional song "House of the Rising Sun", which was then covered by folk-blues artist, Dave Van Ronk, and later recorded by Bob Dylan, where it was picked up by The Animals and became their signature hit. Other songs she is famous for include "I Put a Spell on You" (originally by Screamin' Jay Hawkins), The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun", "Four Women", Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released", the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody", and "Ain't Got No (I Got Life)". The latter, from the musical Hair, was her debut in the UK charts, reaching number two in 1968, and a remixed version of the recording by Groovefinder was a UK Top Thirty hit in 2006.
Broadway musicals also supplied several hits for Simone: "My Baby Just Cares for Me", "Love Me or Leave Me", "Feeling Good", and "Ne Me Quitte Pas". Also "You Can Have Him" on the LP Live at Town Hall recorded when she was twenty-six years old; at the end of this operatic performance, which displays her great skill as an actress as well as a musician, she whoops with joy. This single recording encapsulates her extraordinary power, wit, flexibility, sensuality and occasional menace.
In 1987 Nina experienced a resurgence in popularity when "My Baby Just Cares for Me", a track from her first Bethlehem Records album (1958) became a huge hit in the UK and elsewhere. Nina's versatility as an artist was evident in all her music, which often had a folk-music simplicity.
In a single concert, she moved easily from gospel-inspired tunes to blues and jazz and, in numbers like "For All We Know", to numbers infused with European classical stylings, and counterpoint fugues.
Throughout most of her career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Flemming and guitarist and musical director Al Shackman.
In 1971, Simone left the United States following disagreements with her agents, record labels, and the tax authorities, citing racism as the reason. She returned in 1978 and was arrested for tax evasion (she had withheld several years of income tax as a protest against the Vietnam War). She lived in various countries in the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, continuing to perform into her 60s. In the 1980s, she performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London. In 1995, Simone reportedly shot and wounded her neighbour's son with an air pistol after his laughing disturbed her concentration.
She had a reputation in the music industry for being volatile and sometimes difficult to deal with, a characterization with which Simone strenuously took issue.
Though her onstage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her adoring audiences by recounting sometimes humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and soliciting requests. Simone's regal bearing and commanding stage presence earned her the title the "High Priestess of Soul."
In 1993, she settled near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. She had been ill with cancer for several years before she died on 21st April 2003 in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet.
Simone was the recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 for her song "I Loves You Porgy." She has also received fifteen Grammy Award nominations. On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone. Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Malcolm X College. She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her. Only two days before her death, Simone was awarded an honorary degree by the Curtis Institute, the music school that had refused to admit her as a student at the beginning of her career.
In 2002, the city of Nijmegen (The Netherlands) named a street after her, the Nina Simonestraat. Simone lived in Nijmegen between 1988 and 1990.
Simone was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
In 2010 a statue in her honor was erected in Trade Street, Tryon, North Carolina, her place of birth.
*Official site
Who Am I
Nina Simone Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I now have a treasure
A love too great to measure
I am blessed with happiness
And I'm done with loneliness
I who walked all alone not really knowing
'Til now just where I was going
You came, show me the way
'Til now I was like a grain of sand
Lost on a lonely beach
Yes 'til now I could never understand
That this was within my reach
I who cried to the moon see only sunshine
Because darling you're mine
I am blessed with wealth untold
A love worth more than gold
Nina Simone's "Who Am I" is a song about a newfound love that has brought immeasurable joy and blessings to the singer's life. She explains that despite her previous lack of material possessions and feelings of loneliness, she now has a love that is so great and profound that it cannot be measured. The love has brought her immense happiness, and she is no longer alone. The singer remarks that before meeting this person, she was lost and unsure about her path, but that they have shown her the way. The song's theme is centered around the idea that love is more valuable than material wealth, and that the love shared between two people can bring more fulfillment and happiness than anything else in life.
Simone's lyrics use metaphors to describe her state of mind before finding love. She compares herself to a "grain of sand lost on a lonely beach," conveying a sense of isolation and insignificance. However, she now sees only sunshine and has become "blessed with wealth untold." These metaphors symbolize the dramatic change in the singer's emotional state brought about by love.
Line by Line Meaning
I who never had much
I, who didn't have much before, now possess something valuable.
I now have a treasure
I have come to possess something of great value.
A love too great to measure
I have found an unquantifiable, enormous love.
I am blessed with happiness
I have been bestowed with an abundance of joy.
And I'm done with loneliness
I am no longer burdened by solitude.
I who walked all alone not really knowing
I was lost and wandering aimlessly through life.
'Til now just where I was going
Before this moment, I was unaware of my destination.
I am blessed because this day
Today, I have been given a tremendous gift.
You came, show me the way
You have shown me the path that I should take.
'Til now I was like a grain of sand
Previously, I was insignificant and unimportant.
Lost on a lonely beach
I was wandering aimlessly and feeling isolated.
Yes 'til now I could never understand
I was unaware and incapable of perceiving things clearly until this moment.
That this was within my reach
I could not previously comprehend that my goal was achievable.
I who cried to the moon see only sunshine
Although I previously felt hopeless, I now experience happiness.
Because darling you're mine
Because of your love, I have come to experience delightful feelings.
I am blessed with wealth untold
I have acquired a priceless treasure.
A love worth more than gold
This love is of infinite value to me.
Lyrics © Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Bennie Benjamin, Sol Marcus
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Tintin 36
A strong woman, unapologetically black, Beautiful, Legend. Gangster
orlando bustos
Me gusto mucho cuando termino esa risa. Esa risa de " soy la mejor" y lo eres grande entre los grandes. Creo qur esta entre los 3 mejores artistas de siglo xx . Pero los otros 2 tengo que pensarlos quirn le llega a su talla...
Suzanne Robichaud
I love Nina Simone..She was a real human..Nothing phony about her..Awesome perfomer as well...
Kenneth LaFave
Song was originally written by Leonard Bernstein, Nina expanded it.
jonthesYT
From his score of "Peter Pan". Karloff and Jean Arthur starred, most of the score cut as Arthur couldn't sing it. Linda Eder recorded the complete score a few years ago.
samoied
A goddess........
vasa mm
♥️♥️♥️
Seher Seven
WOW
Adaline - Free Leonard Peltier
Nina was a Goddess♪... uh, i dunno, 'avatar. who are U?
Wellington Jesuorobo
Am I born byy chance?