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Karel Gott (14 July 1939 – 1 October 2019) was a Czech singer, considered the most successful male singer in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. He was voted the country's best male singer in the annual Český slavík (Czech Nightingale) national music award 42 times, most recently in 2017. He achieved considerable success in the German-speaking countries, where he was known as "the Golden Voice of Prague", winning the Goldene Stimmgabel award three times (1982, 1984, and 1995). Over the course of his career he released over 100 albums and 100 compilation albums, and sold an estimated 50–100 million records worldwide, 23 million of them in the German-speaking market, and about 15 million in Czechoslovakia and its successor states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Early life Gott was born in Pilsen in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Plzeň, Czech Republic), and lived in Prague from the age of six. Gott initially wanted to study art, but failed the exams at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM), and so trained as an electrician. On completing his studies, he began working as an electrician, but also became interested in the Prague music scene, especially jazz. He experimented with playing the bass and the guitar, but eventually decided to focus on singing, studying privately. During the 1950s, he occasionally performed as an amateur singer and often participated in competitions. Early career In 1958, he was an unsuccessful participant in an amateur singing contest in the Prague Slavonic House, entitled "Looking for New Talent", but succeeded in obtaining his first performance slots at the Vltava Prague Cafe that same year. In 1960, he decided to become a professional singer. He studied opera at the Prague Conservatory under Konstantin Karenin, a student of the Russian bassist Feodor Chaliapin. Knowing of Gott's interest in current musical trends, Karenin instructed him not only in classical Italian pieces but also in popular music. Around this time Gott travelled abroad (to Poland) for the first time, with the Czechoslovak Radio Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Karel Krautgartner. In 1962, Gott released his first single with Supraphon, a duet with the jazz singer, Vlasta Průchová entitled Až nám bude dvakrát tolik (When we are twice as old). That year Gott appeared in the first Zlatý slavík (Golden Nightingale) national poll, placing 49th with three votes. Shortly afterwards, in 1963, Gott left the conservatory to continue with private singing lessons until 1966. In 1963 Gott was offered a place at the recently founded Semafor Theater, which was at the forefront of the emerging Czechoslovak pop music scene, his first significant experience of stage performance. In the same year, he released his first solo single, a Czech recording of Henry Mancini's Moon River, followed by his song Oči sněhem zaváté (Snowdrift Eyes), which became the year's best-selling record. Shortly afterwards, Gott received the first of forty-two Zlatý slavík awards, given to the most popular artist of the year. Gott established the Apollo Theater in 1965, along with two colleagues from Semafor: Jiří and Ladislav Štaidl. At this point, he was already well known to the public, appearing in the programs Pilgrimage for Two and Evening Prayer while building a repertoire with his own orchestra. He began composing his own songs, and toured Czechoslovakia and abroad with the Apollo Theater. That year, he released his first album, Karel Gott Sings with Supraphon, followed by an English export album titled The Golden Voice of Prague (Artia-Supraphon). In 1967, Gott performed at Midem, the music industry trade fair in Cannes, France, where the applause was measured during every concert. Gott's performance surprised observers by reaching a level of 54 (compared to 58 for Tom Jones). Following this event, Gott signed a contract with the Polydor/Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft record company, renewing it several times until it became a life contract in 1997. Between 1967 and 2000, Polydor released over 125 albums and 72 singles for Karel Gott in German-speaking countries. Gott represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song Tausend Fenster, finishing in 13th place. In the same year, he spent six months performing nightly at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. 1970s In the 1970s, Gott achieved domestic success and appeared regularly on television, including in a ten-part serial entitled Karel Gott in Slany. In Germany, one of his most successful markets, he celebrated his breakthrough in 1970 with the song Einmal um die ganze Welt and was a star in both West Germany and East Germany. He regularly appeared in television shows like the ZDF-Hitparade. One of his best-known hits was the title song to the animated film series Maya the Honey Bee. He recorded the theme in German, later also in Slovak and Czech for the dubbed versions in those languages. In January 1977, a document known as Charter 77 was created within the dissident circle surrounding Václav Havel, Petr Uhl, and Pavel Kohout. This document highlighted the fact that the Czechoslovakian government failed to uphold its commitments to international human rights treaties, such as the Helsinki Accords. In response, the ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) organised a signature campaign called The Proclamation of Czechoslovak Committees of Artist Unions: For New Creative Deeds in the Name of Socialism and Peace, unofficially known as the Anticharter. This proclamation expressed loyalty to the communist regime and was signed by more than 7000 artists, including Karel Gott. In the years following the fall of the communist regime in 1989, Gott was often confronted by journalists for this act, however he denied any wrongdoing for many years, saying that he did not know what he was signing. In his posthumously published autobiography My Way to Happiness (2021), Gott expresses regret writing that "[The anticharta] was a manipulation of all the members within the music industry. And I admit that to this day I am deeply troubled that I got so foolishly tricked." On 3 May 1977, Gott was awarded the title of Merited Artist, and in the following year received the Golden Hat of Cologne, awarded annually to a prominent cultural or social figure. His debut LP in the Soviet Union, released in 1977 by Melodiya, sold over 4.5 million copies, and he remains popular in the former Soviet Union countries. Karel Gott recorded a cover version of the song All by Myself called Kam tenkrát šel můj bratr Jan (Where Did My Brother Jan Go That Time), dedicated to Jan Palach, the student activist who killed himself by self-immolation as a protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in January 1969. The song was recorded in 1977 while Soviet troops were still present in the country. Towards the end of the decade, Gott began to experiment with other genres outside popular music, includi.... Discover the Josef Carel popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Josef Carel books.