Blackbird

Nina Simone

By Shanna Sivakumar

I’m actually not sure what I was thinking when I decided to review one of the greatest American artists— Nina Simone is a whirlwind of a musician, a hurricane of a human being, and deserves a lot more than 250 words. She remains one of the most influential singers of the 20th century and used her fame and talent as a vessel for the civil rights movement.

In 1964, she performed “Mississippi Goddam,” marking her first recorded foray into the civil rights movement. Her lyrics dispelled the slow, gradual change that people assumed would happen in regards to race relations. Simone called for a more immediate change, and as a result, the song was consequently banned in some southern states at the time.

So much of Simone’s musical repertoire consists of songs that speak of or uplift the civil rights movement. One of her more famous songs is “Blackbird,” a metaphor for Black women. Nina Simone laments the historical and current plight of what it means to be a Black woman in America. The song left such a lasting impact that Paul McCartney of The Beatles, used the metaphor in his own song of the same name.

Nina Simone’s personal life was tumultuous. As if it was not hard enough to be a Black woman in the public eye, her husband and (eventually) manager, Andrew Stroud, was both physically and psychologically abusive. After their split in 1971, Simone spent her time in Europe, where she recorded more songs and tried to live a quiet life out of the American eye. She eventually passed away in 2003, but her legacy is one that will be spoken about for generations to come