“The Golden Voice of the Czech Republic”, “the Czech Nightingale” - this is how the unsurpassed Czech singer Karel Gott is called. An attractive guy with an amazing voice quickly rose to the European musical Olympus and became an idol for millions of people. His songs thundered and are now popular in the countries of the Old World, and he himself has not left the stage for more than two decades.

The future musician was born in July 1939 in the city of Pilsen. He became the only long-awaited son of Maria and Karl Gott. The measured life of the family was disrupted by the war, the house collapsed after a bomb hit, and the Gotts were forced to move to the village to live with their grandmother.

The rural idyll lasted until 1946, then the parents managed to find suitable housing in Prague. During his school years, Karel discovered his talent as an artist, and the boy began to draw with pleasure. He dreamed of mastering this profession and becoming a famous painter.

In 1954, Karel graduated from school and decided to continue his studies at art school. However, he was unlucky here; he did not qualify for the competition. Subsequently, he received his education at a vocational school, studied in his native Pilsen, in Cheb and Prague, mastering the non-creative profession of a tram track electrician. In 1960 he got his first job.

What made him think about singing was a gift from his mother, who presented him with a certificate for a studio recording of a song. Karel really liked the result, and he decided to try his hand at music. He worked, and in his free time he took part in amateur competitions and performances. However, the singer with a very unusual voice did not impress the jury.

He would have remained an electrician, singing for the soul, if he had not met in the fall of 1957 with producer Karel Krautgartner, who invited Karel to sing with an orchestra in the capital’s Vltava cafe. For two years he combined work at a factory and singing in restaurants in the capital.

At the same time, Karel takes vocal lessons and learns how to perform on stage. In 1959 he left the factory and entered the State Conservatory of Prague to study opera singing. One of the teachers who choreographed the singer’s voice was student Konstantin Karenin.

Music career

The beginning of the sixties brought the fashion for the twist to Prague, Karel Gott got into the trend and gained incredible popularity. Magazines with his photo on the cover were sold on every corner, and concert tickets were impossible to get. Songs recorded for cinema gained great popularity. For example, the song for the animated series “The Adventures of Maya the Bee.”

In 1968, Karel went to conquer Eurovision, competed from Austria and took 13th place.

The peak of his career began in 1970. Gott often delights fans with new songs that instantly turn into international hits, and makes cover versions of famous melodies. The Czech and German versions of “Bells of Happiness,” recorded in a duet with Darinka Rolintsova, remained on the charts in European countries for a long time.

“The singer from Prague Karel Gott comes to us every year!” - this joke belongs to and characterizes the incredible popularity of the Czech nightingale in the vastness of the Soviet Union. Indeed, the singer, who performed songs in Russian and was fluent in the language, received a unique opportunity to tour the country, which, in principle, was not allowed to foreign performers.

It was incredible glory. The singer took part in the television festival “Song-87”, singing a duet with the song “Father’s House”. His songs were recorded on records that sold millions of copies. Being a polyglot, Karel sings in Russian with almost no accent, impressing the audience with his incredible charisma.

For performances in the USSR, his songs were translated into Russian. And now on the Internet you can freely find recordings of “Lady Carnival”, “I Open the Doors”, “Paganini’s Violin”.

Cinderella from the film “Three Nuts for Cinderella,” jumping to his famous song “Where is your nest, little bird,” became an idol for millions of Soviet children.

Personal life

In 1990, the Czech nightingale publicly announced his retirement. Before the fans had time to recover from such news, they were hit by another unexpected news that the confirmed bachelor Karel Gott had decided to get married. His chosen one was nurse Ivanna Makhachkova.

The wedding took place in Las Vegas, then the newlyweds settled in a luxurious villa in Prague. Even before the marriage, the couple had a daughter, Charlotte; a little later, the young wife gave birth to the singer’s daughter, Nelly-Sofia.

The official family of Karel Gott consists of a wife and two daughters, two illegitimate daughters - Dominika and Lucia - live separately from their father.

Karel Gott now

Another serious test was the disease; in 2015, the singer was hospitalized with a diagnosis of lymph node cancer. Karel was operated on and underwent chemotherapy and rehabilitation. Now his life is not in danger.

Karel Gott remains one of the most popular singers in the Czech Republic. He gives interviews, appears on television, and takes part in the life of the country. He did not become an artist and once refused the post of President of the Czech Republic, but for millions of people he became a legendary singer, the golden voice of the Czech stage.

Filmography:

• 2008 - “Karel Gott. The secret of his youth"
• 2014 - “Karel Gott and all-all-all”

I saw a house on Karela Gota Mountain...he married a young girl and he has small children...happy for him...The Czech nightingale married a 31-year-old Czech woman, Ivana Makhachkova. For several years now, a couple in love lived under the same roof in a civil marriage. Makhachkova gave birth to Gott’s daughter Ella-Charlotte, and is now pregnant again. The wedding took place in American Las Vegas. Only the mother of the bride was able to congratulate the newlyweds on the spot. All other relatives, friends and millions of fans learned about this event from news releases.

Life was good for the stars under socialism. There was no tabloid press, and no one delved into their personal lives. People only learned that Gott had two children in the early nineties. Only later Gott changed his mistresses under the close supervision of journalists and the entire people. The singer claimed that he could not get married so as not to upset millions of his fans. In his old age he no longer thinks so.

When we were choosing the song that you will hear today, we couldn’t decide for a long time which was better: “Follow your happiness” or “When lovers cry.” Finally we decided to start with “Mistresses”, but in the end we still want to say: “Karel, follow your happiness!” Czech singer 68-year-old Karel Gott married for the first time - to Ivana Makhachkova, who is 36 years younger than him. The wedding took place on January 7 in Las Vegas, at the five-star Bellagio Hotel. The only relative present was the bride's mother, Blanca. Other relatives learned about the marriage from news reports. Before the wedding, Karel Gott lived with Makhachkova for seven years in a civil marriage. Two years ago their daughter Charlotte was born. Karel was present at the birth. In September 2007, Ivana became pregnant for the second time. The singer has two illegitimate daughters - 34-year-old Dominica and Lucia, 20 years old. The eldest is from the dancer Antonia, married to a Finnish rock musician. The youngest is studying at the university to become an economist. Makhachkova comes from the town of Opava. There she worked as a nurse in the surgical department for a year. Then three years - in one of the hospitals in America. Ivana assures that she had an affair with Hollywood actor Michael Douglas. But journalists did not find confirmation of her words. After meeting Karel Gott, the girl had plastic surgery on her nose, and also dyed her hair from a brunette to a blonde. Since Ivana began living with the singer, he forbade her to work. The young couple owns a villa in an elite area of ​​Prague, on Bertramets. The mansion is located on a hill, from its windows you can see almost the whole of Prague. Karel gave his wife his favorite office, where he used to draw. She taught Gott how to shop and correspond over the Internet. After the wedding, Makhachkova took her husband’s surname.

Karel Gott

Karel Gott. Born on July 14, 1939 in Pilsen. Czech pop singer, actor. People's Artist of Czechoslovakia. Participant of the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 from Austria.

Father - Karl. Mother - Maria.

He was the only child in the family. The early years were during the war years. At the end of World War II, their house was destroyed by a bomb and they moved to the village for a while.

Since 1946, the Gott family lived in Prague.

During my school years I became interested in painting. After receiving a diploma of secondary education, he tried to study as an artist, but failed.

He received training as an electrician for tram systems. He worked at a machine-building factory that produced the famous Tatra brand, as a controller of electrical mechanisms. At the same time, he participated in amateur performances and performed in amateur concerts.

Since the late 1950s, Gott performed in Prague cafes and dance clubs, combining concert activities with work at the factory. He later recalled: “The working day at the factory began at six in the morning, and concerts in the cafe ended at midnight. The boss complained to my father about my poor work. Dad said that he had one son, and he was a good-for-nothing. The brigade pointed fingers at me. And when I said that I dreamed of singing in Las Vegas, they declared me completely crazy... Eight years passed, and I sent the factory a postcard from the hotel in Las Vegas, where I performed my songs for six months.”

In 1958 he received his first prize at an amateur singing competition.

In 1960, Gott left his job at the tram factory, deciding to devote his life to singing, and entered the Prague Conservatory, specializing in opera singing. Karel Gott learned to speak Russian during his years of study at the Prague Conservatory. His teacher was the lyric tenor Konstantin Karenin, a Russian emigrant and student.

His popularity came in the early 1960s, when he began performing compositions in the twist style.

In 1962 he received an invitation to the famous Prague theater Semafor. In the same year, the duet of Karel Gott and Vlasta Pruhova won the Czech Radio hit parade. Already in 1963, the song “Oči sněhem zaváté” from the performance of the Semaphore Theater, performed by Gott, became the most popular composition in Czechoslovakia, with this song he won the national singing competition “Golden Nightingale” for the first time.

In 1965, Karel Gott left the Semaphore Theater and founded his own Apollo Theater, becoming its main star. After the dissolution of this theater in 1967, he went on tour to Las Vegas (USA).

Karel Gott returned from America as a professional, betting on the mainstream of pop music.

Thanks to his vocal talents, he was able to gain success on the pop scene of Western and Eastern Europe and release his first album, which immediately went gold. On the European stage, Gott became known as the "golden voice from Prague". At the competition "Eurovision 1968" he represented Austria and finished thirteenth with the song "Tausend Fenster". His popularity has also grown sharply in his homeland.

A series of hits such as “Lady Carneval”, “Když jsem já byl tenkrát kluk”, “Stokrát chválím čas”, “Jdi za štěstím” provided him with nationwide fame.

The peak of Karel Gott's career came in the 1970s and 1980s, when he rightfully occupied first place in pop music in Czechoslovakia, regularly received first places in national music competitions and released gold and platinum discs one after another. He often toured Europe, Asia and America, and his repertoire included compositions from a whole range of genres - from pop music to folk and classical.

From 1970 to 1990 he performed with the Ladislav Steidl Orchestra. Later he created his own musical group "Karel Gott Gang" (KGB).

Karel Gott has the honorary title of People's Artist of Czechoslovakia.

In 1980, Karel Gott starred in the concert film “Karel Gott Sings.”

He was a frequent visitor to the USSR. His records “I open the doors” and “Meet the spring” (in Russian) were released with five million copies. The artist successfully performed songs by Soviet composers; in 1978 he took part in the popular festival “Song-1978”, singing a duet with one of the leading Soviet singers. Of all the Czech artists, only Karel Gott managed to achieve enormous popularity in the USSR. The audience really liked the way he sang old Russian romances and Soviet songs: “I loved you,” “Oh, you, darling,” “I met you,” “Nightingales, nightingales, don’t disturb the soldiers.”

Karel Gott - Paganini Violin

In the late 1980s, competition in the Czechoslovakian music scene intensified dramatically, with many young performers emerging, but Karel Gott's fiftieth birthday celebrations in 1989 confirmed his role as the country's number one singer. The performance on Wenceslas Square during the Velvet Revolution of 1989 in support of the overthrow of the communist regime also had a great resonance. At the same time, according to the singer himself, Karel Gott was always far from politics.

In 1990, Gott announced his retirement, but the resounding success of his final performances in sports and concert halls in Czechoslovakia and Germany forced the singer to change his decision. Already in 1992, his album “Když muž se ženou snídá” became the best-selling disc of the year, an achievement that Gott repeated in 1995 and 1997.

He toured extensively in Germany and other Western European countries.

On October 4, 2013, Karel Gott performed at the anniversary concert of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrov “With a song to Victory”, dedicated to the 85th anniversary of its founding.

In 2015, he won the annual national music competition “Golden Nightingale” for the fortieth time. Along with this award, Karel Gott was awarded the “Absolute Nightingale” and “Platinum Nightingale” prizes.

During his creative life he recorded 150 albums and 180 singles. In total, since the beginning of his creative career, the singer has sung and recorded more than 2,500 songs. The singer sold thirty million records. He hosted his own music program on television and starred in several feature films and documentaries.

Karel Gott's disease:

On October 27, 2015, Karel Gott was hospitalized and operated on in Prague with suspected cancer of the lymph nodes. He was briefly discharged from the hospital after the first course of chemotherapy and received the Golden Nightingale, Absolute Nightingale, and Platinum Nightingale awards himself.

In May 2016, Karel Gott was operated on for the second time.

Karel Gott's height: 172 centimeters.

Personal life of Karel Gott:

Has two adult illegitimate daughters - Dominica and Lucia.

On January 7, 2008, Gott got married for the first time in Las Vegas. Wife - Ivana Gottova (nee Makhachkova; born 1976), singer and TV presenter, worked in the Broadway theater. She is 36 years younger than the singer. Before marriage, Gott dated her for seven years.

The artist plays sports, is an ardent opponent of smoking and promotes a healthy lifestyle.

The villa in Jevany, east of Prague, where Gott lived from 1969 to 2005, now houses the Gottland Museum, open to the public. Here you can see details of the singer’s everyday life and personal life.

Filmography of Karel Gott:

1964-1982 - Turning Circle (Drehscheibe, Die)
1964 - Comedy with a Doorknob (Komedie s Klikou)
1964 - If there were a thousand clarinets (Kdyby tisíc klarinetů) - Benjamin Novak, singer
1966 - Martyrs of Love (Mucedníci lásky)
1974 - A star falls up (Hvezda pada vzhuru)
1975 - Romance for the crown (Romance za korunu) - Karel Gott (voiced by Yuri Solovyov)
1978 - Now the party really begins (Jetzt geht die Party richtig los)
1980 - How do you like it? (Jak se vám líbí?)
1980 - Oh sport, you are the world! (documentary)
1993 - Inheritance, or Damn, guys, gutentag (Dedictví aneb Kurvahosigutntag) - cameo
2012 - Goddesses of Socialism (documentary)
2013-2014 - The Curse of Love (Škoda lásky)

Voiced by Karel Gott:

1964 - Lemonade Joe / Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera)

Karel Gott's vocals in the movie:

1973 - Three Nuts for Cinderella / Tri orísky pro Popelku

The older generation, without a doubt, remembers the incredibly popular Czech singer Karel Gott. And those from the younger generation who want to hear his voice can find on the Internet the recordings “Lady Carnival”, “I Open Doors”, “Paganini’s Violin” translated into Russian, and after reading the article, learn about the life of this man gifted with many talents .

From the biography

Karel Gott, the only and long-awaited child, was born into the Gott family in July 1939 in the city of Pilsen, part of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Now the city belongs to the Czech Republic. In Pilsen, as a child, he experienced a war that was deeply etched in his memory, especially since the house where the Gotts lived was bombed, and he and his parents were under the rubble for two days. Karel in one of his interviews shared his thoughts about that bombing:

I was scared. Until that moment, I had only seen prayer as a ritual, but when this happened, my mother and I prayed. And from that time on, I no longer asked my dad about bombers, but began to wonder how such a war even happened. And why...

During the war the family lived in Pilsen and then moved to Prague. After finishing school, Karel tried to enter the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, but failed the exams and, in order not to waste time, went to study at a vocational school to become an electrician, as he indicated in his biography. After graduation, Karel Gott worked at a tram depot.

While studying at a vocational school, Gott took part in student concerts, experimented with playing the guitar, and became interested in jazz. As a result, I decided to focus on singing, even taking private lessons. Already in the 50s he performed as an amateur in cafes and clubs and began to try himself in singing competitions.

Early career

In 1958, Karel Gott took part in an amateur singing competition called “Search for New Talent”, but did not win prizes. However, in the same year, a 19-year-old amateur singer gets a lucky ticket; he receives first place in a singing competition in the Vltava Prague cafe. This was the impetus for the decision to say goodbye to trams and take up professional singing.

In his biography, Karel Gott talks about his years of study with Fyodor Chaliapin's famous student, Konstantin Karenin, at the Prague Conservatory, where he entered in 1960. The teacher, knowing about Gott's desire for popular music, instructed him not only in classical Italian works, but also devoted enough time to the music that the guy liked. After studying for three years, he left the conservatory and continued to take private lessons in voice training and singing.

In 1963, Karel Gott was invited to the Semaphore Theater, which was one of the leaders in Czech pop music; one of his songs won the prestigious Golden Nightingale competition.

Creating your own theater and touring

In 1965, Karel Gott, with two colleagues from Semaphore, Jiří and Ladislav Steidla, created his own theater, Apollo, wrote his own songs and toured throughout Czechoslovakia and abroad. That same year, Gott released his album Karel Gott Singswith. A sharp turn in Karel Gott's biography occurred in 1967, when he closed the theater and went on tour to America, from where he returned famous.

While working abroad under contracts with Polydor/Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaf, Gott releases his albums with songs and singles. Representing Austria at Eurovision in 1968, he took 13th place.

1970 - 1990

The creative biography of singer Karel Gott is at the peak of fame in the 1970-1980s. This decade was marked by trips with concert programs throughout Europe, Asian countries and America. He has enough time to film films and host his own television show. A very frequent visitor to the Soviet Union. He could be seen on both “Blue Light” and “Song of the Year”. In the Union, he performed his songs in Russian.

Not only did Karel Gott have vocal talent, he had a good memory and the ability to quickly learn languages. While abroad, he spoke English without translators. From his youth he knew Czech, Slovak, German and Russian. He spoke well in French and Italian.

In 1978, the singer was awarded an award given to an outstanding figure of our time. He received the Cologne Golden Hat. By the late '70s, Gott began experimenting with genres of music such as country and classical, and took part in the Fan Fair Country Music Festival in 1979.

The 1980s were marked by filming musicals and recording new albums. During these same years, Karel Gott received well-deserved awards for his contribution to the development of musical art. In 1983 - the Hermann Lense Gold Medal in Munich, Germany, for his role in the development of traditional German song.

Museum created in his honor

In the biography of Karel Gott, personal achievements include not only hundreds of recorded albums and singles, work on the set and television. He is, one might say, the only one in the Czech song world who became the winner of the national competition “Golden Nightingale” thirty-four times, receiving the last award on the eve of his 70th birthday, in 2008. 35 kilometers from Prague, Karel Gott has his own museum, which contains all his awards and the story of his life.

Whatever Karel Gott did in life, he succeeded. True, critics believe that he never learned to dance. Most likely, he simply did not try to do it.

But in the 90s, the singer fulfilled his old dream - to paint pictures. He is very sensitive to painting:

Painting balances what I cannot express in my songs. I play with the mood, which is immediately reflected in the painting: how I see nature, how I see people, how I see light and shadow. An artist has this opportunity; he observes life and people a little more and from a different perspective than a person who does not draw. And so in every song. It's the same in drawing. Paints dry and change, and the artist must have the instinct to foresee what they will become after drying...

Personal life

The biography of Karel Gott (there is a photo of the singer in the article) would not be complete if we did not mention his personal life. Of course, such a handsome man could not help but have relationships with the fair sex, unless he is homosexual. One of the Czech newspapers, preparing material for Gott’s 70th birthday, dispelled this myth by making an excursion through his life. The newspaper article listed the names of women with whom Karel Gott, according to the newspaper, could have had a serious relationship. At that time, Gott already had two adult illegitimate daughters: Dominica was born in 1973, and Lucia in 1987.

In 1999, rumors appeared that Karel Gott had found a chosen one with whom he would connect his life. This is German Marika Scheres, who is much younger than the singer. But these were just rumors. But Ivan Makhachkova was able to curb the inveterate bachelor. A turning point came in the biography of Karel Gott with the appearance of Ivana. The relationship with her lasted seven years. Ivana did not insist on the wedding, did not ask to be his wife, she simply systematically accustomed Gott to family responsibilities, shopping, and unobtrusively taught him to use the Internet. She turned the bachelor's house of her chosen one into a cozy family nest.

Ivana and Karel Gott have two wonderful daughters. Ivana gave birth to the youngest, Nelly Sofia, 4 months after the wedding, while the eldest joint daughter, Charlotte Ella, was already two years old.

In the spartan conditions of the socialist camp, a Czechoslovak singer Karel Gott managed to become a superstar, radiating positivity and optimism. Many still reproach him for this: they say, he glorified socialism when the smell of soot from Soviet tanks had not yet dissipated over Czechoslovakia. Colleagues consider Gott to be the darling of fate and slander that this conformist will be successful and favored under any system. However, few people know the true history of the “Prague Nightingale”.

- Karel, can I congratulate you on the release of your new disc? Aren't you afraid that there is little demand for your “Sentimentality” today?

I hope “Sentimentality” will always have its own listener. The new disc contains 17 hits from the repertoire of Czech and world stars. Fragments of famous musicals, songs from films, such as “Casablanca” - in a word, everything that I love and have long wanted to sing. The recording was a blast, and that always lights up. To work on the disc, I returned to the studio where I recorded my first hits in the 60s. That's definitely sentimentality...

- Well, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. It doesn’t scare you that today’s audience has different songs and idols...

At the dawn of my vocal experiments, I immodestly declared: I want everyone in Europe or even in the world to know that there once lived such a singer named Karel Gott. Now I approach this with humor and quite self-criticism. I am not so famous even in European countries, let alone on a global scale... But there are exceptions - such as Russia, Ukraine or German-speaking countries, where I managed to remain popular for decades, competing on equal terms with the world's brightest stars . I have my own audience that stays with me.

- But you clearly fell short of world recognition. Isn't it offensive?

Every time I performed in America, the managers and producers there offered me an overseas career and excellent opportunities to conquer the States. It sounded very tempting, but an indispensable condition was moving to the USA for permanent residence. This step always seemed unacceptable to me. And not even because I love the Czech Republic and are spiritually attached to it. I decided once and for all not to leave my European listeners who believed in me. In addition, in 1967 I signed a contract with the German record company Polydor, and in 1997 these agreements were sealed with a lifetime agreement. So my place is in Europe. In my opinion, it is better to be first in Carthage than one hundred and fiftieth in Rome.

- How did you manage to become a singer?

As a boy he dreamed of becoming an actor. One day my parents caught me watching the same movie for the third time, and they were very surprised. Although my interest was applied: I studied seduction techniques, watching how, say, Clark Gable did it, and trained at school on my classmates. But then music from the West began to seep into Czechoslovakia. Then I bought myself a guitar and wanted to become Elvis. And gradually the passion took over me completely. I forgot acting and took up stage movement, and then vocals - the data allowed. I understood that I had to start with the basics, and entered the music school at the conservatory. True, my approach was extremely pragmatic: I did not want to study all the subjects in a row and was in a hurry to reach my goal by the shortest route. I remember Professor Konstantin Karenin, a student of the legendary Fyodor Chaliapin. Karenin was a true Russian aristocrat, a tenor on a European scale and a man of broad views from whom much could be learned. At the very first lesson with Karenin, I plucked up the impudence and declared that I didn’t want to sing in opera, but I needed technique, because my idols were singers like Mario Lanza: the Italian performed opera arias, but acted in films as a pop star. Professor Karenin was lenient about this, quickly recognizing that I was drawn to jazz and modern popular music. He not only taught me the classical Italian technique of bel canto, but also rehearsed with me the hits of that time. In the first half of the 60s, it was unheard of for a conservatory student to sing at night in a cafe! But I was still such a renegade. If I was caught, I would face immediate expulsion. So when one day Karenin came into a jazz cafe to listen to my performance, I became very tense. Karenin nodded for me to come to his table later - there was a debriefing ahead. Timidly sitting on the edge of the chair, I did not dare look into his eyes. Karenin slowly took a bottle of white wine and, with aristocratic grace, poured it into a second glass. We're clinking glasses. I took this as a good omen. At that moment I felt like a dog that had been petted, despite the fact that it had just made a puddle on the parquet floor. Then the professor reproached me for my soulless performance and quickly said goodbye, warning that tomorrow he was waiting for his student at the vocal lesson in good shape and without a broken voice. That evening I truly spared myself. The professor didn’t tell anyone about my jazz antics.

- When did you first come to the Soviet Union?

I first went on tour to the USSR with the Czechoslovak Radio Orchestra in 1962. I successfully completed my second year at music school, the holidays were approaching, and then an unexpected offer came. The famous Karel Krautgartner announced that his entire jazz orchestra and vocalists are going on a six-week trip around the Soviet Union and, of course, he is counting on me. The joy that I experienced then was never repeated in my life - everything was for the first time. After all, by that time I had never been anywhere except Poland. And here are Moscow, Leningrad, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Baku... I drew my route on the map and was completely delighted.

I still can’t forget the concert in Tbilisi. Georgians filled the large amphitheater, everyone fanned themselves with programs and shouted at each other. The crowd was buzzing like a beehive, which worried me a little. I went on stage and started with a slow song. But the audience did not stop communicating, but, on the contrary, turned up the volume, as if I was stopping them from discussing the latest news. However, I needn't have worried. When he finished singing, there was applause. In the Union republics I was perceived as a visiting celebrity. It was even funny - as if someone from America had come to Prague.

From the very first concert I fell in love with the Soviet public - sincere and open. Therefore, I always looked forward to a trip to the USSR. The hospitality then was incredible - they constantly poured food for us. Whether you like it or not, drink anyway! Mostly cognac and vodka, so not everyone passed this test. For example, I can’t drink much at all. No wonder we didn't remember much after that tour.

By the way, musicians who came on tour to the Union - both in the 60s and in the 80s - had to stock up on alcohol during the day so that they would have something to drink in the evening after the concert. Restaurants and bars in the Soviet Union closed at eleven o'clock. The unobtrusive Soviet service did not care that some artists would be left without dinner after their performances. If we didn’t stock up on anything in advance, we had to make do with candy alone late in the day. And even then only if the administrator or the hotel attendant was in a good mood - then she graciously shared with us.

- Soviet spectators were captivated by your relaxed demeanor on stage. Where did you learn this?

In 1963, I became a member of the Prague troupe "Semaphore", where I learned to catch the mood of the audience, to move without feeling constrained. In this theater I sang my first hit, and then won the first of my thirty-six Golden Nightingale awards as the most popular performer of the year. Two years later, I founded the Apollo Theater with my brothers Jiri and Ladislav Steidl. And then I had the opportunity to perform in Las Vegas, where I learned from Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Ray Charles, saw Tom Jones, Bobby Darin, Cher, Diana Ross, Duke Ellington. He returned home a mature singer.

- What kind of history did you have with John Lennon?

- You are being blamed for supporting the brutal suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968.

I never approved of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet army. When the tanks entered Prague, I was at an international festival in Sopot, Poland, where I was supposed to give a solo concert. It would be better, of course, if at this time I could stay with my parents in the capital. Fires in the streets, a city paralyzed by the military, army forces everywhere, rumors of dead and wounded... My soul was, of course, very anxious. I immediately refused the solo concert, and the festival director was only happy - he was afraid of anti-Soviet demonstrations. The occupation affected me in the same way as all intelligent people in our country. It was a difficult ordeal, these dark days remained forever in the history of Czechoslovakia. From Sopot I returned to Prague, but not for long - I had to fly to Germany and fulfill my obligations under the contract with Polydor. However, in the evening newspapers in Vienna and Hamburg they wrote about my trip that I was running away from my homeland. I definitely didn’t think about emigration at that time, especially in such a harsh time for our people. Therefore, at the press conference that we immediately convened in Berlin, I sharply refuted all this absurdity.

- And yet you emigrated later to West Germany. And this despite the fact that in your homeland you were always praised to the skies. Was it a political protest or just a desire to live like a human being?

The logic of life prompted this. We began to speak out, first imperceptibly, and then more and more sharply, against popular music and all its stars. Pop music was blacklisted: they say it is a dangerous cult that distracts the builders of communism from a bright future. A circle of silence slowly but surely closed around me. My songs were no longer broadcast on radio and television, the lyrics began to be censored, complaints were made about the way I dress, how long my hair is and the width of my trousers... All this could still be tolerated, but the large expenses for recording my song “Hey , wow, elder” in 1969 actually went down the drain. The song was recognized as dangerous for the regime, but I just sang in it: I want there to be heaven on earth. The system was pushing me out. The atmosphere of that time forced me and my colleagues, the Steidl brothers, to make this decision. We informed the rest of the team about this only during the trip to Germany. As for me, I was not afraid to stay abroad on beans. At that time I was very popular in Germany, Austria, Switzerland: my albums were selling out, huge gyms were filled to capacity. But someone didn’t really like it, and the clouds were gathering over me. My phone in Germany was constantly tapped, and there were bomb threats more than once during concerts. The gifts given could be a disguised bomb. Bomb experts checked my car, and plainclothes police were on duty at the concerts. My former German manager Margit von Grund, who helped maintain contact between me and my parents during my six-month emigration, told me about this quite recently. I didn’t have to guess about anything back then in order to remain calm and do my job day after day at the highest professional level. But then the situation changed. The freedom games were over, and it was time for the golden nightingale to go back to her cage. My record company told me that if I didn't return home, they would do everything they could to discredit me in the press. Cause? The Germans did not want to jeopardize their relationship with their Czech colleagues from Supraphon. Karel Gott's place was in Czechoslovakia, and they made this clear to me.

- It was then that Gustav Husak invited you to an audience. Was it scary?

Still would! I was very worried. Unexpectedly, I was invited to the Czechoslovak trade mission in Frankfurt: they say they want to tell me something important. I went without knowing what awaited me. In the style of those times, I could easily enter the trade mission and wake up behind bars in Prague. But the Czechoslovak trade mission employees acted more subtly. The courteous diplomat Pan Cadnar had a conversation with me, who explained that the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Gustav Husak, was interested in our return. He, they say, knows the reasons for emigration, but the party guarantees us safety, the opportunity to perform and travel abroad. It sounded absolutely wonderful. “But, as you understand, such issues cannot be resolved at a distance. You need to come to the Central Committee and talk with Comrade Husak personally,” Cadnar said at the end of our conversation. I understood that if I returned, they could very well arrest me or freeze my career for several years. But there was no other way out. In the eyes of the German and Austrian public, I had the image of a romantic, tenderly loving not only my parents, friends and loved ones, but also my country. In addition, I knew that the parents were interrogated by state security officers. Mom was very worried that she and her father would have a hard time - the authorities threatened to confiscate their property. “You don’t know us well yet,” they said. I couldn’t sleep peacefully, imagining how much trouble and worry I brought to my loved ones! In general, I finally returned and waited, naively, for Gustav Husak to invite me. However, everything was limited to a summons to the Ruzyn prison, where “material evidence” was collected - my books and records. I was deceived - Gusak did not fulfill his word, my account was blocked, and instead of the Central Committee they invited me for interrogation. I was so nervous that I even quarreled with my dad. True, in the Ruzyn prison they began to convince me that everything would soon fall into place. They just wanted to hear from me again the reasons for my emigration.

- Weren’t you afraid that the bed would be soft, but sleeping on the bunks would be hard?

This danger has always been there. Some time later, I learned that it was Leonid Brezhnev himself who had covered for me. Husak was reminded from Moscow: it would be very bad if singers like Karel Gott began to leave Czechoslovakia - after all, the entire socialist camp could be proud of such artists. This probably explains the polite way they treated me. If it weren’t for instructions from Moscow, then who knows what would have happened to me and my family. And so I stayed at home and could travel abroad almost freely. To the West and to the East. Nevertheless, many people still accuse me of selling out and starting to glorify the regime. But I went everywhere only because I was invited. And for some reason no one remembers that my vocal cords earned as much for Czechoslovakia as four prosperous factories could not earn, because almost all the proceeds from the concerts went to the state treasury.

- You came to the Union twenty times, either on tour or to record songs. What do you remember about these tours?

The most vivid impressions, oddly enough, are not associated with concert activities at all. In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev invited me to Moscow to the international forum “For a nuclear-free world and for the survival of mankind.” I found myself in the same company as Milos Forman, Marina Vladi, Yoko Ono, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Claudia Cardinale, Alberto Sordi, Norman Mailer, Graham Greene, Juan Antonio Bardem, Damiano Damiani. We all lived in the same cool hotel, and it was assumed that behind the closed doors of the forum we would talk completely openly about the possibilities of detente. What will happen if America and the USSR stop the arms race? How much money will then be saved on the environment, how much better life on Earth can become! In general, for five days we debated how to save the world. It was an absolutely fantastic time. And to top it all off, Gorbachev invited us to the Kremlin. We met in a friendly manner, without protocol. In the huge hall, where a huge portrait of Lenin hung in the most prominent place, the people sitting were not members of the Politburo, as everyone had become accustomed to over many years. Instead of a party activist, a leading weapons expert from NATO, as well as other well-known experts from the West, appeared next to Mikhail Gorbachev. Among those present were the heads of major world banks, gentlemen from Wall Street, leading businessmen, even old Armand Hammer. All this was reminiscent of a Russian fairy tale: all ideological obstacles collapsed at once, as if by magic, and irreconcilable opponents met at a round table.

- Well, how do you like the Kremlin?

When I entered the Kremlin together with the American director of Czech origin Milos Forman, people from a huge crowd asked us: “If you see Gorbachev, give him my letter!” I confess that I was deeply touched by the fact that they turned to the new king with their problems and believed that he, having read their letter, would certainly help. Milos Forman then told me: “Pinch me if I’m dreaming!” If someone had even hinted to us in 1968 that less than twenty years later we would meet in the Kremlin, where we would be called upon to think about democracy, then I would have considered this person crazy.” Then, in 1987, Czechoslovak politicians had a completely different point of view, and the democratic aspirations of their Soviet brothers seemed to them dangerous nonsense. As we walked along the long Kremlin corridors, I was gradually overcome by pious humility - here it is, history that you can touch. We walked through a pompous hall, then went down a long staircase and found ourselves in the ancient catacombs and tunnels under the Kremlin. Then we passed through countless halls and chapels, the interiors of which reminded me of illustrations from Russian fairy tales. On the way to Gorbachev, it was as if I myself had shrunk and become very small.

All the bankers, world-famous actors, singers, writers, directors froze timidly, and suddenly I noticed that they stopped radiating the usual Western complacency and unshakable confidence. But confidence came from the owner of the Kremlin. I remember how I got into a conversation with one of the Orthodox hierarchs. I told him that I was impressed by Gorbachev’s incredible spontaneity and the fact that he did not have the snobbery of hardened party functionaries. However, my interlocutor smiled mysteriously and began to talk about Orthodox prophecies. Allegedly, one of the Orthodox prophets in the period after the Napoleonic wars said: “Many victories await our fatherland, the country will be a great empire, but this empire will collapse as soon as Mikhail the Marked comes to power.” I admit, I felt uneasy. Many years after that meeting, I think that, despite the prophecies of how people once went to the West for a better life, one day they will go to the East. Not only jobs and your inexhaustible resources will attract new forces to Russia, but also your spirituality, the special aura of the country.

-Have you ever encountered the KGB during your trips to the USSR?

Do not consider me suspicious, but I constantly felt the presence of an invisible eye. Wherever I went, be it Leningrad, Moscow or other cities, I always changed the room that was provided to me at the hotel. I felt calmer that way. Each time I found a hundred reasons why what was proposed did not suit me. I am sure that those who accompanied us on tours around the Union and spoke excellent Czech worked for the KGB. They were so sweet, smiling, attentive and joked so directly that they could easily have been imprisoned for five years. In principle, they gave themselves away by this.

-Have you ever doubted the sincerity of your Russian friends? It is known that many who communicated with foreigners simultaneously shared information with the authorities.

My friends are actors, composers, musicians, writers. You could always rely on them. And if they had to give the last, they would do it without hesitation!

- How do you get out of a situation if something unexpected happens at a concert?

If a piece of text escapes my head, I signal to the sound engineer: they say, the microphone is not working. Sometimes I plug the gap with some other words that I myself don’t understand. And for some time now I have not been trying to sing the Slovak folk song “Shel Macek” at concerts, which has always been received with a bang at home and abroad. The fact is that once I performed this song in the Prague concert hall “Lucerna”. The fashion then was for very tight trousers, which sometimes had to be pulled on even while lying down. I went on stage and, for the sake of warming up, decided to perform a practiced highlander jump. I jumped up, and suddenly my trousers split at the seams. Both front and back. He tore the notes from the hands of the nearest musician, covered himself and ran from the stage.

- How much did you earn during socialist Czechoslovakia?

I was lucky: I was included in the first category of singers, so I received 600 crowns for a concert in a hall that could accommodate several thousand. But my fee increased when I received an honorary artist: you won’t believe it, they started paying me 1200 crowns for a concert! When I grew up to the national level, it became really great - 1600 crowns (in the 80s it was about 160 Soviet rubles. - “Results”).

- How much does touring bring you now?

It is impossible to give exact figures. Believe me, if it weren’t for sponsors, not a single tour would be possible to organize, much less make any profit. Organizational costs, including insurance and transportation of equipment, are astronomical.

- But it’s probably no secret how much you earned from recording discs?

Almost nothing. Listen, when Dean Reed, an American actor, singer and composer, an ardent fighter against imperialism, who lived in the GDR, came to visit us in Prague, he demanded to be paid in dollars. What about me? It would never have occurred to me. When I recorded my first record in the Union in the late 70s, it sold five million copies. Can you imagine what that would mean now? But on “Melody” I was paid two hundred rubles per song: whether the disc sold or not - it didn’t matter. My fee remained the same. Six years ago, for example, I earned a gold disc on Melodiya, but company representatives popularly explained to me from the stage of the Kremlin Palace that they could not award me a gold or platinum disc, because this was regarded as a marketing ploy, and they were above that.

- What did you answer?

I reassured them that the same thing happened to me in my homeland. The main thing is that we will not pander to the market! (Smiles.) The most successful album in Czechoslovakia, “Christmas in Golden Prague” (1,400,000 copies), was recorded in 1969. It also included sacred music like Ave Maria and Ave verum corpus, so ideologically savvy comrades strongly advised Supraphone not to draw attention to this record under any circumstances. They say the songs are beautiful, but how can we glorify a religious holiday? Since the sale was almost under the counter, I never received a gold disc in the end. But music lovers got me right: I became a symbol of silent resistance. I tried to turn to the spiritual and eternal when it was generally forbidden to talk about spirituality.

- And yet you are a rich man, don’t be modest. You paint and sell paintings successfully, you organize your own exhibitions, not to mention the fact that after the Velvet Revolution it became a sin to complain about fees.

By that time I was already promoted and received the right to what I had earned. Rich is the one who can manage his time. By this logic, I'm as poor as a church mouse.

- They say that the fate of a tenor is like a sentence. The public always expects the brightest performances from them...

While we tenors are ordinary people. A singer must always be in shape. 365 days a year. Moreover, until the singer ends his career for some reason, he has no right to “bad days.” If we are not quite right, the audience will immediately determine this and give their verdict. The tenor is a fragile and vulnerable voice, each disorder is immediately noticeable and audible. Just as it was in the ancient Colosseum, when the audience expressed their will by turning their finger up or down, it happens now in opera and pop music. There are no compromises. They say, for example, when Luciano Pavarotti in Puccini’s opera “La Bohème” on the stage of the Vienna Opera fell short of one single note (his voice simply failed him in a critical place), he was not engaged for performances in this theater for the next six years. This is the price of one note!

As for our tricks of the trade, I have always been interested in what Luciano Pavarotti sucks on stage during concerts that are broadcast around the world. When I went to see him before the concert in Prague, I saw that at the press conference there was a glass full of ice in front of him. Pavarotti explained that since he swallows ice cubes throughout the concert, he has no problems with his voice. Sore throat, catarrh of the upper respiratory tract and all that stuff bypasses him.

- You have always had many fans. Mysterious Russian women probably haven’t left you unattended either?

I have fans who can sell their jewelry to accompany me around the world when I tour, and I have regular fans who meet me everywhere at airports in Russia. By the way, my first acquaintance with the “mysterious Russian soul” happened back in Leningrad in the 70s. A woman came up to me after the concert and said that she would not leave until I went with her. I carefully found out what “will not lag behind” means. Does she, for example, want to stay with me for life? When I realized that it wasn’t, I stopped citing fatigue and a host of other reasons. We soon found ourselves in a small but tastefully furnished apartment. I sat down at the table on which stood the obligatory bottle of vodka and a bowl of fruit. Then she sat down opposite me, and for the first time I was able to calmly examine this lady. She was about thirty years old: beautiful black hair, an unusually thin and gentle face, a high forehead and energetic eyes that looked at me with curiosity. I still couldn't shake the feeling that she was thinking about spending the next 30 years of her life with me. Then we clinked glasses and... I thought I fell in love. I even said that I would go with her wherever she wants as soon as this tour is over. When our rendezvous was in full swing, I suddenly noticed a photograph on the wall: a broad-shouldered sailor was smiling at me from it. She said it was her husband. I almost choked and instantly sobered up. Over the next few seconds, I managed to play the most expressive etude of my life - Stanislavsky would have been jealous. I pretended that I felt very bad and flew out of the apartment into the frosty street.

- It’s clear why you always had a reputation as a Don Juan...

- Have all your wishes come true?

I never thought that I would sing for so long. It seemed that up to 30 years was the limit. I am very grateful to fate.