Karel Gott (14 July 1939 – 1 October 2019) was a Czech recording artist, an amateur painter and a president of Czech Republic in 2013 - 2015. He is considered the most successful male singer in the former Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. He was voted the country's best male singer in the annual Český slavík (Czech Nightingale) national music award 36 times, most recently in 2012.
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 later in Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In 2003, he was asked by journalists if he considered running for president; he did not refuse immediately, but stated that he would consider only direct elections. This was made possible in 2012, when, after disappointment with previous elections, direct presidential elections have been introduced in Czech Republic and Karel Gott entered the elections as an independent candidate. Although polls indicated rather low popularity (the winner was generally expected to be Miloš Zeman or Jan Fischer), surprisingly he made it to the second round and beat Miloš Zeman by a very small margin of 1.5% of votes.
His short presidency has been marked by moderation; he was often criticized for his weakness and indecisiveness, but also praised for moderation and uncontroversial views. However, his lukewarm reaction to the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 earned him a lot of criticism. He supported continuous integration of Czech Republic into European Union, but failed to see the introduction of Euro, which he stated as his goal during the first days of his presidency.
In October 2015, he was diagnosed with a malignant cancer of the lymph nodes. Although he initially did not consider resignation, he finally resigned on 31 December 2015, citing as main reasons his health problems and "disgusting attacks" by the opposition, most notably his former rival Miloš Zeman, who upon seeing photos of visibly tired and sick Karel Gott publicly nicknamed him "zombie-president".
In March 2016 he had recovered from cancer and was in remission, but decided to retire from politics.He performed in several concerts, but never fully returned to his previous musical career.
On 12 September 2019 it was announced that Gott was suffering from acute myeloid leukemia. After almost three weeks, on 1 October 2019 he died in his sleep in the company of his family.
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 later in Czech Republic and Slovakia.
In 2003, he was asked by journalists if he considered running for president; he did not refuse immediately, but stated that he would consider only direct elections. This was made possible in 2012, when, after disappointment with previous elections, direct presidential elections have been introduced in Czech Republic and Karel Gott entered the elections as an independent candidate. Although polls indicated rather low popularity (the winner was generally expected to be Miloš Zeman or Jan Fischer), surprisingly he made it to the second round and beat Miloš Zeman by a very small margin of 1.5% of votes.
His short presidency has been marked by moderation; he was often criticized for his weakness and indecisiveness, but also praised for moderation and uncontroversial views. However, his lukewarm reaction to the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 earned him a lot of criticism. He supported continuous integration of Czech Republic into European Union, but failed to see the introduction of Euro, which he stated as his goal during the first days of his presidency.
In October 2015, he was diagnosed with a malignant cancer of the lymph nodes. Although he initially did not consider resignation, he finally resigned on 31 December 2015, citing as main reasons his health problems and "disgusting attacks" by the opposition, most notably his former rival Miloš Zeman, who upon seeing photos of visibly tired and sick Karel Gott publicly nicknamed him "zombie-president".
In March 2016 he had recovered from cancer and was in remission, but decided to retire from politics.He performed in several concerts, but never fully returned to his previous musical career.
On 12 September 2019 it was announced that Gott was suffering from acute myeloid leukemia. After almost three weeks, on 1 October 2019 he died in his sleep in the company of his family.
