Remembering Nina Simone: Hozier - "I was completely hypnotised by her presence on record, and the weight of her voice"

Hozier

“When I was eight-years-old I discovered a Nina Simone CD and played it falling asleep at night. I was completely hypnotised by her presence on record and the weight of her voice. Through ‘Mississippi Goddam’ I was introduced to the American Civil Rights Movement and what followed on from it.”

(2018)

Sinéad O'Connor

On missing out on her chance to talk to Nina Simone, the night she presented her with Hot Press Lifetime Achievement Award in Dublin, in 1999:

“For all the sins I ever committed, the one thing I’m going to regret is that I had some shit on my mind about a man... Somebody came down to me and said, ‘Miss Simone is upstairs if you’d like to go and talk to her.’ And I didn’t go up because I was so head-fucked. I wish to God that I had. You know the way they say that when you die, the people you love will come to get you? I have a bunch of musicians who I hope are coming to get me, so I’ve included her in my bunch.”

(2020)

Sinéad O'Connor presents Dr Nina Simone with a special award for her lifetime achievements in music at the 1999 Heineken Hot Press Awards in Dublin. Copyright Colm Henry.

Ezra Furman

“Nina Simone is a big role model. There’s something about her. She’s got a lot of music that’s about just being gorgeous and, by virtue of who she is, anything she does becomes a protest song. Even a Bee Gees cover becomes a powerful call-to-arms. It’s due to her presence and the cluster of thoughts and issues around her public profile. That’s an amazing thing to me..."

(2022)

Moses Sumney

"She really wanted to be taken seriously as a classical artist and as a classical pianist, because that’s what she would have considered herself as. But there was no space for her, and she wasn’t allowed to claim that space for herself.”

(2020)