Today, on what would've been Nina Simone’s 80th birthday, the always stellar Meshell Ndegeocello drops a track from her latest album Pour une Âme Souveraine: A Dedication to Nina Simone called “Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair,” a cover of one of Nina Simone’s most popular gems. The stripped-down video matches the song’s simplicity, as it was filmed by Meshell on the iPhone 4s.
With various covers of this song, the singer is singing to sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, but Ndegeocello’s bisexuality is put on full display as she chooses to use “she” instead of “he,” which is just as effective as when Nina recorded this song during the Civil Rights era, acknowledging black pride amid the turmoil.
