Czeslaw Niemen

Czeslaw Niemen (1939 - 2004), real name Czeslaw Juliusz Wydrzycki, was born in Stare Wasiliszki, Poland (now Belarus). He made his debut in the early 1960s and soon become one of the most important Polish singer-songwriters, progressive musicians and jazz-rock fusion artists of the last quarter-century. His song, "Dziwny jest ten swiat" (1967) is commonly known as the most important Polish protest song of that era. In 1972 an English version called "Strange is this world" was recorded.

Niemen was a composer and singer. He played guitar, hammond organ, mellotron and moog synthesizers on his records. In the early 1970s, CBS label released three of his records in English language.

Later, Niemen composed film soundtracks and theater music and showed interest in art.

In his career Niemen achieved huge success,
got many awards and the first golden record in
Poland in 1967. He won the Sopot International
Song Festival in 1979. "Legendary actress and singer Marlene Dietrich was so astonished by Niemen's performance while visiting Warsaw in
1964 that she asked him for permission to sing his
song "Czy mnie jeszcze pamietasz" ("Do You Still Remember Me"). It was later re-titled as
"Mutter, hast du mir vergeben". His song
"Pielgrzym" ("The Pilgrim") was re-mixed
and used in  "The Test" by Chemical Brothers."
(IMDB, 2002)



Sources: Czeslaw Niemen - http://niemen.xt.pl , IMDB - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0631116/bio