"I had my operatic knowledge, and I had this interesting collection of artists I was dedicated to: Judy Garland, Nina Simone and so on – I could have put Nina Simone on this list – but this record by Bob Dylan was a way to relate to my parents a little bit. I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a huge Dylan fan, but I appreciate him, I understand his greatness, and it's really now that I'm starting to dig into his catalogue and cherish his existence. But in general, I'd say a lot of his recordings make me think of my dad – that's not the sexiest thing, but Blonde on Blonde broke through the barrier, and particularly the song 'I Want You' kept the thread going."

"A really definitive film about an incredible woman. She’s mint – the end! But seriously: I’m obsessed with the model Nina Simone set out for women. She allowed us to sing in lower, stranger registers. She made politics a central part of her art. She was uncompromising. The way her daughter leads her story in this film also gives it a really special perspective. You can’t help but feel humble before her."

"Nina Simone is special to me because of her voice, the fact that she sings very low. When I listened to her voice for the first time, I asked my husband, 'who is this man?' and he said 'no, it's a woman!'. I told him: 'no, it's impossible, she's got a voice like a man!'. That was my first impression of her voice and of her music. I like to sing very low when I'm in the studio so I felt very comfortable listening to Nina Simone, because this is the way that I wanted to write my music and sing. Also, the fact that she wrote a lot of protest songs. 'Feeling Good'- you can interpret it as you want. When I listened to this song for the first time, it was my introduction to Western music. I was in Paris, and listening to this song was like freedom to me. Freedom, because when I left my family [in Mali], I ran away."

"She takes that song 'Ain't Got No, I Got Life' and makes it so much more than a silly musical song [from Hair], she gives it emotional depth. That's the great thing about Nina Simone - she did so many Bee Gees songs - and the Bee Gees are this agreed-upon joke. I think the Bee Gees are amazing geniuses - they are just so prolific and the fact that they were able to make all these changes and keep going. They did this Beatles-esque psychedelic thing which I think is awesome and went onto becoming the kings of disco, and wrote that Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton song, 'Islands In The Stream'. Nina Simone hears a Bee Gees song or someone suggests it to her and she goes, ""That's such a sweet song - those guys have no soul at all, but I'm gonna make this song sound awesome."" What I love about that album is that it's mostly all recorded live - there's real space to it because of that. That's something we tried to do for the musical - record it live, we wanted to record it in the same room, but because there were so many elements we had to put in it was impossible. The album was recorded four days after Martin Luther King's death. I don't know how big Nina Simone really was in her lifetime, but it feels like we are lacking in politicised chanteuses right now. I think now [there's] this real era of Christian rock - people just want to be uplifted. It's kind of that dynamic thing that the critic criticises Cat Stevens for; you can probably criticise Coldplay or Mumford & Sons for the same kind of thing. Like, ""Oh you're just toying with me, you're starting all small and then making it huge, of course I have a religious feeling right now!""

"What an amazing artist! She is the first woman that I was ever introduced to that played classical piano and melded it with her own style and emotions! I think the whole world should know and respect Nina Simone as I believe she is one of the absolute GREATS! The song 'Sinnerman' on this record is one of my all time favorites and whenever I hear her music, it reminds me to be as different, and skillful, and brave that I can be. And this song is the best way to feel this way."