by André Depienne

On July 18th, 1988 the Velvet Underground singer “Nico” died at the age of 49 in Ibiza due to a cerebral haemorrhage. The reason was an accident with a bike. Her real name was „Christa Päffgen“. She was born October 16th, 1938 in Cologne, but flew to Berlin with her mother during the war. She was discove- red by the photograph Herbert Tobias at the cat walk while modeling. With his help she became a professional model and was booked by many magazines. In Paris she was told to use an artist name and so she called herself “Nico”. She also became an actress under this name and she acted in Frederico Fellini’s mas- terpiece “La Dolce Vita”. She met a lot of mu- sicians like Bob Dylan, Brian Jones and Jim- my Page. Another important man was Andy Warhol. She soon became his “Muse”. Due to Andy Warhol she joined the group “The Vel- vet Underground” and with her as a singer the album “The Velvet Underground and Nico” was praised in the experimental Rock-scene. Two other popular members of “The Velvet Undergroud” were Lou Reed and John Cale. The same year she recorded her first solo-al- bum called “Chelsea Girl”.