Every time Karl Gott’s songs came on the radio, my Czech husband would turn up the volume and I would be hushed. After the song was over I would get a history lesson on the “Golden Voice” of Czech Republic and that Gott had won the Nightingale award (known as Zlatý or later Česky slavík) 42 times in the past 54 years (between 1963 and 2017). The Nightingale Award is like the Grammy Award in America. Actually, he could have a shot at Grammy§ too as he performed in Las Vegas and in Carnegie Hall, New York.) It was also pointed out to me that Karel Gott was a painter and there is a funny painting at U Slepiček.
I would just respond with a nod and say something like “interesting”, even if he had told me many times before. I would acknowledge Gott had a nice voice but it wasn’t really my style of music and just sounded a bit old fashioned for me. Then I would turn the knob to Evropa 2 station to something I liked more. I don’t think my response was that unusual as I’ve related with other women married to Czech men with the same opinion.
It wasn’t until Gott passed away and my husband got quite emotional that I became more interested. The day he died I went to my Crossfit Gym and the young Czech trainers were playing Gott music during our workout. Of course it wasn’t really motivating to lift weights to Karel Gott, but somehow it seemed really sweet that even the young people were touched by his death. Then a woman at the gym said her girls went to school with Karl Gott’s children.
Wait, what??? An 80 year old man with school age children. Ok, now I’m really curious.
I went home and started looking up everything about Karel Gott. The man had a 40 year age difference with his wife. What was the draw with the Czech people to idolize this man. Even if Gott had a controversial political stance and had signed the anti Charter 77. The fact that he spoke about this publically gave the document more exposure which many people did not like, yet they continued to listen to his music. The news after his death about signing petitions to change the name of the airport from Vaclav Havel to Karel Gott showed that people had already forgiven him over the past. The government was offering to have a state funeral, but family declined and they had a funeral with state honors instead. Perhaps for the best in light of what other people may have felt about his role in history.
After Gott died it occurred to me that I should take my husband to this funeral so he can pay his last respects to the legendary Karel Gott. Some people prepare for concerts by listening to that particular musician’s music to get into the spirit, so I decided to prepare for the funeral by listening to Gott’s music all day. Little did I know I would actually like many of his songs like ‘Je Jaká Je’, ‘Být Stále Mlád’, and ‘Oči Má Snehem Zaváté’. He also sings ‘Pretty Woman’ in English and many songs in German. However, the one that really touched my heart was the video and song he performed with his daughter, Charlotte Gottová just recently. It is so beautiful and shows his close relationship to her and thoughts for her future. It is worth watching ‘Srdce Nehasnou’. Go to https://youtu.be/BibNLUQG_-4 .
The day of the funeral I was seeing reports of the extraordinarily long line and was having doubts about going. When we got to the end of the line it was from the Zofin Palace, across the bridge and going around the corner. We weren’t sure if we would stay, but thought to give it some time to see how fast it moves. Fortunately the weather was nice and the fact that they were only giving about 10 seconds for each person to view the casket it did move fast. However, it would still take 2 hours to get inside. It was all ages of people standing in line and people were relatively calm. It helped that there were port a potties every 50 meters and the red cross was handing out tea to people waiting. Outside the Zofin palace the tv reporters had lights on them and were preparing to speak. When we entered the smell of flowers hit us immediately.
As I saw people coming from the room with where Gott lay many were crying. I was starting to feel the emotion of loss as well. Inside were more flowers than I could imagine. The guards made sure no one lingered. Once outside it was a feeling of closure on a chapter that I did not appreciate until just that week. The man that had been standing in front of us for two hours and saying nothing turned around and started talking to me. He asked where I was from. Then his curiosity got the best of him. He had to know why would a foreigner come to Karel Gott’s funeral and was I really a fan of the music that I would stand in such a line. “Just out of curiosity” seemed too disrespectful, so I told him that I had been listening to Gott for a long time with my husband.
An estimated fifty thousand fans showed up to pay their respects to the Czech legend.
