Pilsen native Karel Gott would have celebrated his 85th birthday today, Sunday, July 14, 2024. The most famous Czech singer became an honorary citizen of the city of Pilsen on November 2, 2009.
Who doesn’t know Lady Carneval, Hey, gentlemen aldermen, I’ll sweeten my coffee, Where’s your bird’s nest, I have to manage it myself, Maya the Bee, When a man has breakfast with a woman or the unforgettable New Year’s Eve opera with Waldemar Matuska… these are just a few of more than two thousand songs that Karel Gott sang during his career.
The multiple winner of the Golden Nightingale and Czech Nightingale was born in Pilsen on July 14, 1939. He lived in the West Bohemian metropolis with his parents until 1945, following which the family moved to Prague. Karel Gott trained as an electrician, in the 1950s he began performing as an amateur singer and participating in singing competitions. In the early 1960s, he began studying singing at the Prague Conservatory. A milestone in his career was an offer to join the Semafor theater in 1962, a year later he won his first Golden Nightingale.
Around 50 million copies of his records have been sold since 1965, making Karel Gott the most successful Czech performer. He released more than 290 solo albums abroad and on the domestic scene, in addition to “nightingales” he received over 120 television awards, 32 Gold records, 1 Supraphon Diamond record (for 13 million sold audio carriers with his recordings in the years 1962 – 1992 (13 million sold audio carriers represented 86% of the population of Czechoslovakia at the time – for example, Michael Jackson would have to sell 215 million records in the USA alone during his career to achieve the same level of popularity in a single country as Karel Gott), 5 Supraphon Silver Records, 7 Platinum Records for successful audio sales carriers with Karel Gott’s recordings, which were awarded to the performer by Supraphon and GOJA, the Gott-Janeček agency, and many others.
Karel Gott sang around 2,500 songs in total. He collaborated with many important artists here and abroad. He is among the five best-selling performers in the history of German music. His best-selling album was Karel Gott, sung in Russian. In Czechoslovakia, the Christmas album Christmas in Golden Prague became the best-selling album, which is still exported all over the world today.
The Golden Nightingale died in his sleep at the age of 80 before midnight on October 1, 2019.
