Jan Lewan
Polish-American polka musician
Jan Lewandowski (Polish pronunciation: [lɛvanˈdɔfskʲi]; born 15 August 1941 in Bydgoszcz, Poland) known professionally as Jan Lewan, is a Polish-American songwriter and polka band leader. The Grammy Award-nominated musician was convicted of fraud charges in 2004, for financial crimes described by The Morning Call as a "classic Ponzi scheme".
Lewan's life has been depicted in multiple films, first in the 2007 TV documentary Mystery of the Polka King, the 2009 documentary film The Man Who Would Be Polka King, and the 2017 American comedy film The Polka King, in which Lewandowski is portrayed by Jack Black, which was released on Netflix on January 12, 2018.
Early life
Information on Lewan's early life is found primarily on his official website, which states that Lewan was born in Bydgoszcz in northern Poland in 1941 during the German occupation of the country during World War II. As a young child Lewan loved music and enrolled in Conservatory of Music in Gdańsk. He also sang in an opera. Lewan served in the Central Polish Army for several years as all young men in Poland were obliged to do at the time. Lewan played in music halls across Poland and Northern Europe including the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. He did not get interested in polka until after his emigration, as polka music is not highly preferred in Poland. After Lewan came to the United States, he met his first wife, Rhonda Lewan, during a telethon. They divorced in 2011.
The public source identifies “Jan Lewan” as polish-American polka musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lewan, Polish-American and polka.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q47325702. VIAF identifies the subject as 303030926. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 2004, 2007 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jan Lewan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.