- Nice hand 'ashamed' Saint-Etienne 8-0 Ligue 1 mauling
- Boeing CEO says ending strike 'a top priority'
- Stock markets mostly fall after Fed-fueled rally
- Harris slams Trump for hypocrisy on abortion as US starts voting
- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Gurbaz, birthday boy Rashid lead Afghanistan to 177-run rout of South Africa
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- 8 dead in Israeli strike, source says Hezbollah commander killed
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
- Stock markets fall after Fed-fuelled rally
- Top Hezbollah commander 'killed' in Israel strike
- Poland charges Russian over attack on Navalny ally: prosecutors
- Man City have rest 'advantage' in Arsenal showdown: Guardiola
- Maresca has 'no doubt' in Jackson as Chelsea's number nine
- EU chief announces 35 bn euro loan plan for Ukraine before winter
- From TikTok to Hollywood, the irresistible rise of Italy's Khaby Lame
- Verstappen punished for swearing in Singapore press conference
- Sri Lanka lead by 202 in first New Zealand Test
- Brook 'not too fussed' by England's batting in heavy Australia loss
Nina Simone comes to a New York stage, as song rights controversy brews
In New York, an off-Broadway show is bringing queen of the blues Nina Simone back to life -- but backstage, a battle has been brewing over rights to the anti-racist icon's songs.
"Nina Simone was constantly told to sit down and shut up: you're being too loud, you're the angry Black woman," said Laiona Michelle, who is performing the role of the late superstar in "Little Girl Blue" at a 200-seat hall in Manhattan's theatre district.
"It was my mission to bring all that noise to the front and answer those questions. Why was she so unsettled? Why was she angry? Why was she so deeply sad?"
Throughout the two-hour performance, the actor -- who also wrote the show -- brings her warm vocals to songs like "Feeling Good," "Love Me Or Leave Me" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," classics that contributed to the legend of Simone, who died in 2003.
The "Little Girl Blue" team had to rely on many of the covers that Simone rendered iconic because they were unable to obtain the rights to perform her originals, a quandary they blamed on her former lawyer Steven Ames Brown.
The California attorney says since 1988 he has administered the artist's catalogue -- she granted many of her rights to a charitable trust -- and has called the musical "fictitious" and "superficial," saying it "does not do her justice."
- Radicalism -
"Little Girl Blue" explores the life of the artist born Eunice Waymon in 1933 in North Carolina.
A gifted singer who aspired to become a classical pianist, she was denied admission to a prestigious conservatory in Philadelphia, a rejection Simone attributed to racism.
The show lays bare the suffering she endured throughout her life, including beatings from her husband and manager Andrew Stroud, and mental health struggles.
It also approaches the singer's radicalism: "Nina Simone was saying 'Black Lives Matter' before it was even an expression," Michelle said.
"I ain't 'bout to be non-violent, honey," she famously told an audience in 1968 while performing "Mississippi Goddam" -- three days after the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
Simone had written "Mississippi Goddam" in response to a 1963 fire set by Ku Klux Klan members at an Alabama church, in which four young Black girls died.
But in the musical, which brings to life that performance at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island, New York, writers had to leave out the song that became emblematic of the Civil Rights Movement.
- 'Homage to an icon' -
Attorney Brown accuses the team behind "Little Girl Blue" of having "appropriated Nina for their own gain," saying they "have no understanding of her life."
He vowed a different show to be staged in New York and London, which "will be faithful to her life as she expressed it."
But following a successful 2019 run in New Jersey, the producer of "Little Girl Blue" holds that their show stands up to the critics.
"Nina was a Black woman and this piece was written by and stars a Black woman who wanted to pay homage to an icon that belongs to Black cultural history," producer Rashad V. Chambers said.
He suspects that Brown granted rights to Simone's songs to someone who offered a more attractive sum.
In terms of the musical, the handicap is relative: Simone was famous for her covers, and many of those songs are now in the public domain.
During a recent performance that included the title song "Little Girl Blue," along with "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair," the audience rose to its feet in applause.
Michelle aims to take the show to one of Broadway's prestigious theaters, where biopics honoring Bob Dylan, Tina Turner and Michael Jackson have already come out.
"That's where Nina Simone deserves to be," Michelle said. "She deserves to be on the big stage."
B.Shevchenko--BTB