Nina Simone and Billie Holiday had many similarities but they also had differences. Billie Holiday was known for her ability to fluctuate her pitch to create contrast and emotion when singing. Nina Simone also had a long range where she could sing in a booming low register and a raspy high register. Despite this similarity their training was very different. Holiday did not receive technical training and could not read music. Her training came from the jazz and Harlem nightclubs in New York City. Simone was a child piano prodigy, who was classically trained in singing and music, and attended Juilliard. Both women were civil rights activists and used music as a means of speaking out against racism. Billie Holiday highlighted racism in America with the song “Strange Fruit”, which Nina Simone also sang propelling her into the forefront of the civil rights movement. Nina Simone, in 1963, also wrote and sang the song “Mississippi Goddam”, which was a response to racial injustice, including the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. Nina Simone rejected being compared to Billie Holiday, although she acknowledged how people might compare them given that they had some parallels musically and personally, being rejected and knocked down. She acknowledged that they both used music as a way to adapt.
Nina Simone (70 years) lived a fuller life then Billie Holiday (44 years). Billie Holiday has a complex life which involved narcotics and a tragic ending dying from pulmonary edema and heart failure caused by cirrhosis of the liver. Although Nina Simone did not have an easy life as she did struggle with mental health issues, as well as financial controversy with managers, record labels and the IRS, she lived a good portion of her life abroad. She left the United States living in several different countries, including Liberia, Switzerland, England, and Barbados before eventually settling down in the South of France. Simone did not want to be seen as a victim or associated with a tragic ending, this is partly why she worked to distance herself from Billie Holiday, feeling that Holiday was defined as a fallen victim.