Trivia

Her professional name is a combination of Nina ("little one"), from an Hispanic boyfriend, and Simone from French film actress Simone Signoret.

Daughter Lisa Celeste (Lisa Simone Kelly), born in 1962.She's a Broadway actress, star of the Broadway musical "Elton John's Aida".

In 1995 she was given a suspended eight-month jail term after firing a scatter-gun at a pair of noisy teenagers playing next to her home in Bouc-Bel-Air near Aix-en-Provence. That same year she was fined $US 5,000 for leaving the scene of a car accident that had occurred in 1993.

Sixth of seven children. Studied at Julliard School of Music in New York Resides in the South of France Awarded an Honorary Doctor in Music and Humanities

Her first hit recording was her rendition of the classic song "I Loves You, Porgy", from Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess".

She lived at various times in Barbados, Switzerland, France, Liberia, Trinidad and Britain before moving to the south of France in 1993.

She began her career as a singer and pianist in Atlantic City's Irish Midtown Bar & Grill.

Had a reputation for being moody and difficult.

Inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

In 2010 Canadian singer Kellylee Evans paid homage to Simone by recording an album entitled "Nina" in which she sang an assortment of songs Simone had made popular during her career.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 516-517. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.

Friends with Carmen McRae, and Dick Gregory.

Sister of Sam L. Waymon.