Andy Miller

A true bohemian: the story of Nico’s rise and fall

Jennifer Otter Bickerdike gives Nico’s extraordinary music its due: beautiful, difficult, uncompromising, influential — and sadly uncommercial

Nico in 1967, at the beginning of her solo career [Getty Images] 
issue 07 August 2021

It is well established that artists are not always the nicest people. On the surface, the life of the model, actress and singer Christa Päffgen, aka Nico, would appear to bear this out. Being Nico didn’t mean being nice.

The story of Nico’s rise and fall usually goes like this. She grew up in the rubble of post-war Berlin, emerging from adolescence as both stunningly beautiful and remorselessly ambitious.

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