Sunday Music Show | All stories

Chinaski is one of the Czech Republic’s best known pop bands, established back in 1987 – two years before the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia.

One of the country’s most popular singer songwriters, Jaromír Nohavica, is one this year’s recipients of the highest state distinction presented by president Miloš Zeman. On this occasion, we’ll be listening to some of Nohavica’s best-known songs.

Marta Kubišová, one of the most popular Czechoslovak singers of the 1960s and a symbol of resistance against the communist regime is bowing out with a final goodbye tour that started in the Slovak city of Kosice at the end of September and will take her to Prague’s Lucerna Palace where the singer started her career.

Jana Jelínková has been singing with the pop band Sto zvířat for 27 years and ahead of her 50th birthday, her fellow band members came up with a novel idea to showcase the vocalist’s talent by writing material for a solo debut.

Jan P. Muchow is today perhaps best known for his film soundtracks – and some of the best that work is now gathered on the compilation The Antagonist.

Czech bluegrass has a tradition dating all the way back to the 1960s. But it took several decades before it was acknowledged in the land of its origin, the United States.

Skety, a vocal group made up of young professional jazz singers and musicians, was established in 2010 and has since collected a number of awards. Their second and most recent album called Tydytý, was released in spring of this year and features a number of renowned Czech musicians.

Drawing on the sound of 1980s synthpop, Zagami Jericho’s debut album City is My Church quickly won plaudits for the young Prague artist.

The US duo Dálava, consisting of vocalist Julia Úlehla and guitarist Aram Bajakian, explores traditional Moravian folk songs collected by Úlehla’s great-grandfather, blending them with more contemporary, indie-rock sound. We are going to listen to their second album, called the Book of Transfigurations, which was released in April 2017.

Singer and song-writer Jana Lota is one of the new lights on the Czech music scene. Her latest CD titled Do světla (Towards the Light) is packed with colour and emotion, drawing on the singer’s memories of her childhood the Krušné Hory mountains (Ore Mountains).