# Czesław Niemen

Czesław Niemen (Polish pronunciation:; born Czesław Juliusz Wydrzycki; February 16, 1939 – January 17, 2004), occasionally credited mononymously as Niemen, was one of the most important and innovative Polish singer-songwriters and rock balladeers of the 20th century, singing primarily in Polish. He possessed an unusually wide voice range and equally rich intonation. He was also an ardent composer and keyboardist.

## Biography
### Early life

Niemen was born in Stare Wasiliszki in the Nowogródek Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic (now in the Grodno Region of Belarus), to parents Antoni Wydrzycki (1896–1960) and Anna (née Markiewicz; 1897–1986). Niemen belonged to a community of Poles, living outside the eastern borders of contemporary Poland, on the eastern lands of the historical Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (called 'Kresy' – 'borderlands' – in Polish). From the age of 10, he was involved in both school and church choirs, sometimes playing organ accompaniment. Niemen briefly studied in Grodno at the State College for one year, after which he was expelled for truancy.
In 1959, at the age of 19, the family were forcibly migrated to Northwest Poland along the Baltic Sea during the second repatriation of Poles, frequently moving between various cities, including Kołobrzeg, Świebodzin and Białogard.

### 1960s

In the early 1960s, Niemen began performing in student cabarets in Gdańsk, first singing in foreign languages and later in his native Polish. Niemen found himself in the first group of Polish musicians who were identified with the burgeoning big-beat style of Eastern Europe, thanks to being among 15 winners of a festival for young performers in Szczecin in 1962. This victory allowed him to join the band Niebiesko-Czarni (The Blue-Blacks), one of the first professional pop-rock bands in Poland, with a number of leading vocalists performing one after another during concerts. He made his commercial debut in the following years, singing Polish rock and soul music.
In 1964 at Congress Hall, Warsaw, Niemen, together with his group, played as a support act to Marlene Dietrich during her concert. She heard his song "Czy mnie jeszcze pamiętasz" ("Do you still remember me?") there. She enjoyed it so much that she soon wrote her own lyrics for the song and recorded "Mutter, Hast du Mir Vergeben" ("Mother, have you forgiven me?").
Soon after his first successful concerts in France, he started to use the pseudonym Niemen instead of his real name, gaining wider notoriety in Poland and making it easier to pronounce by foreigners (Niemen is a Polish pronunciation of the Neman River, which flows in close proximity to his place of birth). His 1967 song "Dziwny jest ten świat" (Strange Is This World) is commonly acknowledged to be the most important Polish protest song of that era; an English version was also recorded in 1972. The song was influenced by the American blues tradition. He was one of the first Polish performers to wear long hair and colourful clothes and introduced the style of psychedelia to communist Poland, which displeased officials.
The first three LP album's Niemen recorded with his band "Akwarele" (Watercolours). Subsequently, he recorded with his other new bands: "Enigmatic", "Grupa Niemen" and "Aerolit". In 1969 he changed his musical style to progressive rock while recording the monumental album Enigmatic. That album's most notable song was "Bema pamięci żałobny rapsod" (A Mournful Rhapsody in Memory of Józef Bem), based on the 19th-century poem by Cyprian Kamil Norwid. The rest of Enigmatic's songs were also in sung poetry form. Niemen played the Hammond organ on his records, later moving to the mellotron and the Moog synthesizer.

### 1970s

In the early 1970s, Niemen recorded three English language albums under the CBS label, two of them (and three more in Poland) with the Silesian band SBB. With SBB Niemen performed at the Rock & Jazz Now! opening show for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich sharing the stage with Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin and Charles Mingus and subsequently toured with Jack Bruce's band. In 1972 he also performed a song he wrote in Andrzej Wajda's film Wesele (The Wedding). In 1974 he recorded Mourner's Rhapsody with Jan Hammer and Rick Laird from Mahavishnu Orchestra. In the seventies, Niemen turned to jazz-rock fusion and electronic music, recording the album Katharsis. In an interview from this era, he said, "One thing I know is that I'm a composer. I want to concentrate on writing music for film, for theater. I don't know for how long I will continue singing. I am just bored by singing. This form of artistic expression seems quite exhausted for me. At least it does not excite me like it used to."

### Later years and death

Niemen went on to compose film soundtracks and theater music, and in the 1990s he showed interest in art, painting and computer graphics.
He died after a long battle with cancerous lymphomas on January 17, 2004, in Warsaw. His remains were cremated and placed in a columbarium niche on Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw on January 30, 2004. The funeral was attended by over 3,000 people.

## Awards and recognitions

Niemen won the Sopot International Song Festival in 1979.

### Remembrance

A number of documentaries on the life of Niemen were filmed, including Marek Piwowski's 1968 film Sukces, Krzysztof Rogulski's 1976 film Niemen, Eugeniusz Szpakowski's 2007 film Czesław Niemen, and Krzysztof Magowski's 2014 film Sen o Warszawie (A Dream About Warsaw).
Since March 12, 2004, Czesław Niemen's song Sen o Warszawie has been performed before each match of Legia Warsaw at the Stadion Wojska Polskiego and is considered the club fans' anthem.
In 2009, National Bank of Poland presented three coins dedicated to Niemen: issued on June 19 two silver 10-zloty coins, one of which of square shape, and issued on June 17, 2-zloty coin of Nordic Gold alloy.
On February 20, 2011, a museum devoted to Niemen and his musical legacy was opened in the artist's birthplace in Stare Wasiliszki, present-day Belarus.

## Niemen's support bands

Niemen cooperated with the following bands; some of them were support musicians, while others were independent bands: "Akwarele" ("Watercolours") (1967–1969), "I Niemen" ("And Niemen") (1969–1970), also under the name "Niemen Enigmatic"), "Grupa Niemen" (made of the members of Silesian Blues Band), Niebiesko-Czarni, "Aerolit", and female vocal band Alibabki. "Aerolit" accompanied Czesław Niemen in 1974–1978. Initially it was formed from young musicians of the rock band Krzak: Jacek Gazda, Jan Błędowski, Maciej Radziejewski, Piotr Dziemski. The word means "aerolite" in Polish.

## Discography
### Studio albums

| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications |
| Title | Album details | POL | Certifications |
| Dziwny jest ten świat | Released: May 15, 1967 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | 31 | POL: Gold |
| Sukces | Released: May 20, 1968 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Czy mnie jeszcze pamiętasz? | Released: June 30, 1969 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | 35 | |
| Enigmatic | Released: January 19, 1970 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | 28 | POL: Gold |
| Niemen | Released: May 24, 1971 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Niemen Vol. 1 | Released: 1973 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Niemen Vol. 2 | Released: 1973 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Niemen Aerolit | Released: 1975 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Katharsis | Released: 1976 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Idée Fixe | Released: 1978 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Postscriptum | Released: 1980 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Przeprowadzka | Released: 1982 Label: Rogot | — | |
| Terra Deflorata | Released: February 20, 1989 Label: Veriton, Polton | — | |
| spodchmurykapelusza | Released: October 27, 2001 Label: EMI Music Poland | 22 | |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. ||||

### English-language albums

| Title | Album details |
| Strange Is This World | Released: 1972 Label: CBS |
| Ode to Venus | Released: 1973 Label: CBS |
| Mourner's Rhapsody | Released: 1974 Label: CBS |

### Russian-language albums

| Title | Album details |
| Russische Lieder | Released: 1973 Label: CBS |

### Live albums

| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions |
| Title | Album details | POL |
| 41 Potencjometrów Pana Jana | Released: October 22, 2007 Label: Polskie Radio | 27 |
| Kattorna/Pamflet na ludzkość | Released: February 28, 2009 Label: Polskie Radio | 24 |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |||

### Compilation albums

| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications |
| Title | Album details | POL | Certifications |
| The Best of Niemen | Released: 1979 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Gwiazdy mocnego uderzenia: Czesław Niemen | Released: 1991 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | — | |
| Sen o Warszawie | Released: 1995 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | 37 | |
| Czas jak rzeka: Złota kolekcja | Released: 2000 Label: EMI Music Poland | 1 | POL: Platinum |
| od początku I | Released: 2002 Label: Polskie Radio/Polskie Nagrania Muza | 7 | POL: Gold |
| od początku II | Released: 2003 Label: Polskie Radio/Polskie Nagrania Muza | 14 | |
| Spiżowy krzyk | Released: May 30, 2008 Label: Polskie Nagrania Muza | 20 | |
| Nasz Niemen | Released: July 27, 2009 Label: Agora SA | — | POL: Platinum |
| Pamiętam ten dzień | Released: November 7, 2011 Label: Polskie Radio | 4 | POL: Platinum |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. ||||