Born in 1939 in Stare Wasiliszki, Niemen first found fame playing in student unions around Poland before reaching the next level with a band named Niebiesko-Czarni. It was during a whistle-stop international tour with this group that he abandoned his natural surname, Wydrzycki, in favour of the more pronounceable Niemen. His star was rising, and in 1964 he was chosen to open for Marlene Dietrich when she performed in the Palace of Culture – so taken was she by the bard, that she later covered one of the songs that he had written.

Mixing elements of avant-garde jazz and psychedelic rock with progressive sounds and folkish influences, his sound was utterly unique. With the swinging sixties plunging the world into an era of unprecedented social turmoil, Niemen was able to emerge in his own right, and it was his acceptance of Western styles, trends and sounds that made him a figurehead of the Polish avant-garde. Poetic in his lyrics, experimental in his music and maverick by his very nature, he captured the zeitgeist in a way no other Polish artist was capable of.

Released in 1966, his album Dziwny jest ten świat shifted an estimated 150,000 copies, and in the process became the first Polish record to hit gold. However, it is for his song Sen o Warszawie (Dream About Warsaw) that he remains best-known. A stirring ballad inspired by the construction of the new post-war housing estates, it remains anthemic to this day and is traditionally sung with great gusto before every Legia Warsaw home game. Passing away from cancer in 2004, Warsaw’s adopted son was cremated and his ashes interred in a niche in  Powązki Cemetery.