Karel Gott
| Karel Gott | |
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Karel Gott in 2016
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| Background information | |
| Born | July 14, 1939 |
| Origin | Pilsen, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia |
| Genres | pop, rock’n’roll, swing, jazz, blues, country, rock, opera, operetta, musical, classical music, traditional, brass music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, actor, songwriter, painter |
| Years active | 1958–present |
| Labels | Supraphon,Polydor, Electrola, Melodiya, Amiga |
| Website | www.karelgott.com |
Karel Gott (born July 14, 1939, in Plzeň) is a Czech Schlager singer, and an amateur painter. He is considered the most successful male singer in former Czechoslovakia and currently in the Czech Republic; he was elected the Most Favorite Male Singer in the annual national poll Český slavík (English: Czech Nightingale) a total of forty-one times, most recently in 2016. He also gained widespread fame in the German-speaking countries and is a fluent speaker of the language. Worldwide he has sold an estimated 50–100 million records with his songs, 23 million of them in the German-speaking market, and about 15 million in former Czechoslovakia and its successor states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Of his debut LP in Russia (Melodiya, 1977) there were sold over 5.5 million copies.
Gott was born in Pilsen, at that time Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, now Plzeň, Czech Republic), and has lived in Prague since age 6. His family was German Bohemian descent, but has assimilated into Czech national identity. He initially wanted to study art, but failed the exams at UMPRUM, the renowned School of Industrial Art, upon which he began training as an electrician. On completing his studies, he began working as an electrician, but was soon fascinated by the new types of music flooding the city, and became interested in jazz. He experimented with playing the bass and the guitar, but eventually decided to focus on singing, studying it privately. During the 1950s, he occasionally performed as an amateur singer and often participated in competitions.
In 1958, he participated in an amateur singing contest in the Prague Slavonic House, entitled "Looking for New Talent." He utterly failed to impress the judges, but soon made a name for himself in Prague jazz circles, finally getting his first engagement at the Vltava Prague Cafe that same year.
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