WICN Artist of the Month, January 2026: Nina Simone
Written by WICN Intern on January 2, 2026
On Monday, January 19, 2026, we observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday honoring his role in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in law and society.
In his opening address at the 1964 Berlin Jazz festival, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke:
It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before modern essayists and scholars wrote about racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm what was stirring within their souls.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, leaving the country in a state of shock, mourning, and confusion.
Three days later, Nina Simone performed at the Westbury Music Fair in New York and premiered a new song titled Why? (The King of Love Is Dead), a tribute to MLK. The 13-minute performance was interrupted by a sermon reflecting on other prominent Black figures who had recently passed, followed by a plea to the crowd to “protect those that we love. Stand by them, stay close to them. . . We can’t afford any more loss.” Her words could be heard on her 1968 live album ‘Nuff Said.
Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone was a pianist, songwriter, singer, and civil rights activist. She was a prodigy from the start, playing the piano at the age of four. Thanks to the support of her community and dedicated teachers, she pursued formal musical training, first at the Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina, where she graduated as the valedictorian, and later at Juilliard in New York City.
Her debut as a singer, with an expressive contralto voice, began at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There, the nightclub owner insisted she sing as well as play. She also adopted the stage name Nina Simone at about this time to keep her performances private from her family. Her debut album Little Girl Blue (1959), launched a remarkable career that would see her release more than 30 albums, perform across the globe, and earn the title High Priestess of Soul.
Simone’s music spanned many styles, including classical, folk, blues, gospel, soul, jazz, pop, and R&B. In contrast to her serious study of piano, she did not train as a singer. “I never studied voice,” she said, “but I had been around people who had studied voice, so I knew a little about it. I just used whatever came naturally to me.”
In 1964, Simone changed record distributors and, for the first time, she was able to address racial inequality in her music. By the mid-1960s, Simone’s music became an unflinching voice for social justice. Songs like Mississippi Goddam responded directly to racial violence and injustice, and she often appeared at civil rights rallies, including the Selma to Montgomery marches. Her artistry combined musical brilliance with fearless advocacy for equality and human dignity.
In the decades that followed, Simone lived and performed in various countries, finding inspiration in each place she called home. Nina Simone passed away in her sleep on April 21, 2003, at the age of 70, in her home in southern France, after a battle with breast cancer.
Simone’s legacy continues to be celebrated worldwide. She received honorary degrees from Amherst College, Malcolm X College, and the Curtis Institute of Music. She was a four-time Grammy Award nominee, and her music earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000. In 2018, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, followed by the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2021. In 2019, her song Mississippi Goddam was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its cultural and historical significance. Most recently, in 2023, Rolling Stone ranked her No. 21 on their list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Her life and work remind us that, like Dr. King, she used her gifts not only to inspire but also to challenge the world to be better.
