Before becoming the voice of one of the most influential rock records, Nico was already a face that is hard to forget. Born Christa Pöfgen on October 16, 1938 in Cologne, she began working as a model as a teenager. Paris, fashion magazines and high cheekbones made her a recognizable figure, but cinema first gave her a chance to appear in front of a wider audience.
In 1960, Federico Fellini included her in “La Dolce Vita“. Her appearance was brief, but enough to place her among the faces of European bohemia. A few years later, Nico met Andy Warhol in Paris. He invited her to New York and introduced her to the world of the “Factory“ - the artistic environment where music, cinema, fashion and visual art coexisted.
Three songs that changed her biography
In 1966, Nico starred in Warhol's film “Chelsea Girls“, and at the same time found herself at the center of his new musical project. Warhol insisted that she join “The Velvet Underground“, although the group did not accept her without tension. The result was the debut album “The Velvet Underground & Nico“, released in 1967.
Nico sang lead vocals on three songs - “Femme Fatale“, “All Tomorrow’s Parties“ and “I’ll Be Your Mirror“. It is her low, cool and distinctly foreign voice that brings a sense of distance, beauty and anxiety to the album. The Library of Congress has designated the recording as a work of cultural, historical and artistic significance and included it in the National Recording Registry in 2006.
The record was not a great commercial success upon its release. It did not enter the Top 100 of the American chart and did not create any hits, but it gradually became one of the most influential albums in the history of rock. The cover with the yellow banana, designed by Warhol, completes its transformation into a cultural symbol.
Nico refuses to remain just a muse
The same year, her first solo album “Chelsea Girl“ was released. In it, Nico recorded songs by Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, John Cale and the then young Jackson Browne. Among them is “These Days“, which decades later received a new life in the film “The Tenenbaums“.
However, Nico did not like the album's chamber folk sound. “When I first heard the record, I cried - and it was all because of the flute“, she later said, quoted by “The Independent“. After that, she began to build her own musical universe, much darker and more unforgiving.
John Cale produced and arranged “The Marble Index“ from 1968, “Desertshore“ from 1970 and “The End…“ from 1974. In these recordings, Nico used a harmonium, and her songs sounded like slow, raw, almost medieval visions. Biographer Jennifer Otter Bickerdyke summarizes her interest in the singer as follows: “I wanted to find out what was true and what was myth, because there was so much mythology around her.“
The End in Ibiza
Nico continued to record and perform, but the last years of her life were marked by severe addiction and insecurity. On 18 July 1988, she suffered a bicycle accident in Ibiza. After the fall, she was taken to hospital, where she died at the age of 49 from a cerebral haemorrhage.
Today her name is often mentioned alongside Warhol and “The Velvet Underground“, but her music is not limited to the three songs from “The Banana Album“. Nico begins as an image turned muse and ends as an author with her own, recognizable and difficult to imitate sound.
Sources: the-independent.com, theguardian.com, pitchfork.com