A German singer-songwriter, fashion model, actress, keyboard player and Warhol superstar, remembered for both her time in the Velvet Underground and her solo work.

Nico made her early fame as a model. After leaving school at 13, she started selling lingerie and soon was spotted by fashion insiders. A year later, her mother found her work as a model in Berlin. While on a modelling assignment in Ibiza, she met the photographer Tobias, who christened her Nico after his ex-boyfriend, filmmaker Nico Papatakis. She soon moved to Paris and worked for Vogue and other fashion magazines in the late 1950s. She also claimed to have been briefly hired by Coco Chanel.

Despite having dropped out of school at an early age, Nico eventually became fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and French, in addition to German. After appearing in several television commercials, Nico landed a tiny role in a couple of minor films. In 1959, she was invited to the set of Federico Fellini's La dolce vita and attracted the attention of the acclaimed director, who promptly gave her a sizable role in the film.

By this time, Nico had moved to New York to take acting classes under the guidance of Lee Strasberg. After splitting her time between New York and Paris, she landed the lead role in Jacques Poitrenaud's Strip-Tease (1963). She recorded the title track, which was produced by Serge Gainsbourg but not released until 2001, when it was included on a CD in as part of the French compilation Le Cinéma de Serge Gainsbourg. During this period she gave birth to a son, Ari, who she claimed was fathered by actor Alain Delon. Although the child was raised mostly by Delon's parents, Delon denied his fatherhood.

In 1965, Nico met the Rolling Stones' founder and guitarist Brian Jones and recorded her first single, I'm Not Sayin' for Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label.

Actor Ben Carruthers introduced her to Bob Dylan in Paris that summer. It is said that Dylan wrote the song I'll Keep It With Mine for her shortly afterwards.

She began working with Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey on their experimental Factory films, including Chelsea Girls, The Closet, Sunset and Imitation of Christ. She was introduced to the Velvet Underground, at that time the backup group for Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, a multimedia performance featuring film, music, lights and dancers in a sort of total experience theatre.

Nico began to work with the Velvets, singing lead vocals on three songs (Femme Fatale, All Tomorrow's Parties and I'll Be Your Mirror) and backing vocals on another (Sunday Morning) on their debut album The Velvet Underground and Nico. Released in 1967, the album became influential and critically lauded.

Nico had a short-lived romantic relationship with the main singer and songwriter, Lou Reed. Around this era, she was also romantically involved with prominent musicians including John Cale, Jim Morrison of the Doors, Jackson Browne, Brian Jones, Tim Buckley and Iggy Pop.

Shortly after the Exploding Plastic Inevitable tour drew to a close in early 1967, Nico and the Velvet Underground parted ways as a team. The exact reasons for her departure have not been made clear, though both Lou Reed and the Velvets' multi-instrumentalist John Cale played significant parts in various aspects of Nico's solo career.

Over the course of the next 20 years, she recorded a series of critically acclaimed albums, working with the likes of Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera. Cale was particularly involved in Nico's music, producing four of her albums as well as arranging and playing various instruments on the recordings.

Her debut album, Chelsea Girl (1967) included songs by Dylan, Tim Hardin, Jackson Browne and Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison, co-writing one song, It Was a Pleasure Then with Reed and Cale. The album included strings and flute arrangements superimposed by its producer. Nico was not satisfied with the finished album and had little say in production matters.

For The Marble Index (1969), Nico wrote the lyrics and the bare bones of the music, mainly consisting of harmonium chords and with a European folk sound. The arrangements were written by Cale, who fleshed out Nico's songs with an array of folk and classical instruments. Nico's harmonium became her signature instrument for the rest of her career.

Nico released two albums of her own in the 1970s: Desertshore (1970) and The End (1974), and featured on two tracks of a third, June 1 (1974). On Desertshore, Cale played most of the instruments, while Nico wrote the music, sang and played the harmonium. On The End, Cale played a wide range of instruments including xylophone, synthesizer, acoustic guitar and electric piano. That album also featured Brian Eno, who played on the June 1 live album with Nico, Cale and Kevin Ayers.

Nico returned to New York in late 1979 where her comeback concert at CBGB in early 1980 was glowingly reviewed. She began playing regularly at the Mudd Club and other venues with Jim Tisdall accompanying her on harp and electric guitar, and they went on a sold-out tour in the East and Midwest.

Nico recorded her next studio album, Drama of Exile, in 1981. It was a departure from her earlier work with Cale and featured a mixture of rock and Middle Eastern arrangements. She recorded her final solo album, Camera Obscura, in 1985, an experimental collection that implemented jazz instrumentation and featured Nico's version of the Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart song, My Funny Valentine.

A number of Nico's performances towards the end of her life were recorded and released. Among the noteworthy are 1982's Heroine, 1986's Behind the Iron Curtain and her final concert, Fata Morgana, recorded in June 1988.

For over twenty years, Nico was heroin dependent. Just before her death, she had managed to kick the habit and had embarked on a regime of exercise and healthy eating. In July 1988, she had a minor heart attack while riding her bicycle on holiday with her son, Ari, in Ibiza, and hit her head as she fell. She died the next day.