What was Nina Simone’s Net Worth?
Nina Simone was a renowned American singer, songwriter, arranger, pianist, and civil rights activist with a net worth of $5 million at the time of her death in 2003. She released over 40 albums, including “Little Girl Blue” (1959), “Forbidden Fruit” (1961), and “Black Gold” (1970).
Simone was famous for many singles, including “Feeling Good” and “I Put a Spell on You,” as well as her rendition of “I Loves You, Porgy” from the opera “Porgy and Bess.” She wrote an autobiography, “I Put a Spell on You,” published in 1992.
Simone’s life and career were the subject of the documentaries “What Happened, Miss Simone?” (2015) and the film “Nina” (2016). She was posthumously inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame (2009) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2018).
Unfortunately, Simone passed away in April 2003 at the age of 70.
Nina Simone’s Early Life
Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, in 1933. Her parents were Mary Kate and Rev. John Devan Waymon, and she had seven siblings. Simone began playing piano at a young age and often performed at her church. She faced racial discrimination early on, as she was forced to give up her seat at a classical recital to make room for white people. Simone’s parents were eventually moved back to their rightful spot, and she refused to perform until they were.
Simone’s parents worked as a handyman and a maid, and her music teacher set up a fund to help pay for her education. She attended Asheville’s Allen High School for Girls and later studied with Carl Friedberg at the Juilliard School to prepare for an audition at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. Unfortunately, Curtis denied her application, which Simone suspected was due to her race, but the school’s staff has denied it.
Nina Simone’s Music Career
Nina Simone began her music career as an accompanist at Arlene Smith’s vocal studio and taught piano lessons at her home. She started performing at the Midtown Bar & Grill in Atlantic City, where she was asked to sing in addition to playing the piano. She adopted the stage name “Nina Simone” in 1954. Her cover of George Gershwin’s “I Loves You, Porgy” reached #18 on the “Billboard” Hot 100 and #2 on the Hot R&B Sides chart in 1958.
Simone released her debut album “Little Girl Blue” in 1959 and signed with Colpix Records. She gained creative control over her recordings and addressed racial inequality in America with the single “Mississippi Goddam” on her album “Nina Simone in Concert” for Dutch Philips Records in 1964.
Simone earned a Grammy nomination for the 1970 live album “Black Gold,” which featured “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” a civil rights song inspired by a play by Lorraine Hansberry. She left the U.S. for Barbados in 1970 after the music industry boycotted her albums for her protest against the Vietnam War through unpaid taxes. She returned to Barbados to avoid arrest and had an affair with Prime Minister Errol Barrow. Simone spent some time in Liberia and recorded her final album for RCA, “It Is Finished,” in 1974.
She continued to release albums throughout the ’80s and performed regularly at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. Simone had a hit in Europe with “My Baby Just Cares for Me” after it was re-released following its feature in a Chanel No. 5 perfume ad. She released her final album, “A Single Woman,” in 1993 before moving to southern France.
Nina Simone’s Personal Life
Nina Simone was married twice, first to Donald Ross in 1958, and then to Andrew Stroud, a New York detective, in 1961. She and Stroud had a daughter named Lisa in 1962, but they divorced in 1971. Stroud was reportedly abusive towards Simone and also served as her manager during their marriage. Lisa Simone Kelly, as she is now known, is a singer and actress who produced the documentary “What Happened, Miss Simone?” in 2015, which won a Primetime Emmy and an Academy Award nomination.
In the late 1980s, Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had a reputation for aggressive behavior. In 1985, she attempted to kill a record company executive whom she accused of stealing her royalties. In 1995, she shot her neighbor’s son with an air gun. Simone was sentenced to eight months in jail, but the sentence was suspended after she received psychiatric treatment.
Death and Funeral of Nina Simone
Nina Simone passed away at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, France on April 21, 2003, at the age of 70. She had been battling breast cancer for several years. Her official website reported that Simone died in her sleep.
A Catholic funeral service was held at a local parish and was attended by hundreds, including Patti LaBelle, Ruby Dee, and Ossie Davis. Elton John sent a floral arrangement with a message that read “You were the greatest and I love you.”
Nina was cremated, and a bronze heart-shaped sculpture was created to hold some of her ashes. The sculpture sits inside a statue of her in Tryon, North Carolina. Her daughter also has a portion of Nina’s ashes, while the rest were scattered across several countries in Europe and Africa.
Nina Simone’s Awards and Honors
In 2017, Simone was posthumously honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She also earned two Grammy nominations during her lifetime.
Her version of “I Loves You, Porgy” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000, and her song “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” was inducted in 2019. In 2010, Nina posthumously won an African-American Film Critics Association Award for Best Song for “Four Women” from “For Colored Girls.”
Simone received honorary degrees from Malcolm X College and Amherst College, and two days before she died, she was informed that she would be receiving one from the Curtis Institute of Music, the school that once rejected her. In 2019, her song “Mississippi Goddam” was preserved in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
