Nina Simone Fun Facts, Quotes and Tweets

17^th January 2017

Fact: The childhood home of Nina Simone is up for sale in North Carolina for $95,000 (£76,800). The late singer was one of eight children raised in the small wooden cottage, located in Tryon. The little place was built in 1930.

24^th July 2014

Quote: "You have to try to understand where people are coming from. This has always been an issue in our society. A white person can play Cleopatra, even though Cleopatra was a North African woman, who in reality had coffee skin. But that's not sellable in Hollywood. So you get Elizabeth Taylor with purple eyes. There's always been a lot of tension in the African-American community about Hollywood being a whitewashing machine." Zoe Saldana is trying to understand why her casting as jazz great Nina Simone has been met with so much opposition because she's not black enough.

14^th August 2012

Fact: Zoe Saldana is in talks to play jazz and blues great Nina Simone in a new biopic. Online reports suggest the Avatar star is the red-hot favourite to lead the cast in Nina.