Mississippi Goddam - A Homage to Nina Simone

The very title of this Prom, ‘Mississippi Goddam’, taken from Simone’s 1964 album, Nina Simone in Concert, comes from her first civil rights song and was written in response to the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers, and the September 1963 bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama. The song was controversial at the time - especially below the Mason-Dixon Line, where ‘Goddam’ was expunged and boxes of records sent to record stations were returned broken in half; but, despite its almost show-tune feel it remains extraordinarily powerful half a century later. The protest songs are one part of Simone’s output, but what this magnificent Prom also amply demonstrated is that Simone’s legacy and outreach is one of astonishing breadth.