Waldemar Matuška

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Waldemar Matuška ['valdɛmar 'matʊʃka] (born July 2, 1932 in Košice, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech singer who became popular in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1986, he immigrated to the United States. Since the Velvet Revolution, lives in Saint Petersburg, Florida.

1 Early career
2 Emigration
3 Velvet revolution
4 Sources

[edit] Early career

Waldemar Matuška was born in Košice, Czechoslovakia, spent his whole childhood in Prague. His mother was a singer of Vienna operetta theatres. He worked as a glassmaker and he tried to perform on various music instruments with many different bands. In 1960 he recorded his first song Suvenýr (Souvenir). Later he became an actor in the theatre Semafor. On the stage he performed with Karel Štědrý, Jiří Suchý and since 1961 with Eva Pilarová. He won Zlatý Slavík twice in 1962 and 1967, and was placed second several times.

His popularity was growing and he started acting in the movies and creating songs for movies. Waldemar and Eva Pilarová left Semafor and joined ensemble in the theatre Rokoko. But Pilarová soon returned to Semafor and Matuška began singing with Helena Vondráčková, Marta Kubišová, Jirka Zelenková and others. He participated on other projects beside the theatre, mainly duets with Hana Hegerová and Karel Gott.

[edit] Emigration

In 1976 he married singer Olga Blechová. His popularity was high, and he also concerted abroad. In 1986 he left Czechoslovakia and stayed with his wife in Florida, United States. Communist party banned all his songs, destroyed recording of Jsem svým pánem, deleted opening song in the popular television series Chalupáři (just melody remained), deleted title in the series V rozpacích kuchaře Svatopluka. Matuška continued with performing in the United States mostly for emigrants from Czechoslovakia.

[edit] Velvet revolution

After the 1989 Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia his songs were returned to the proper place in the television series. He still lives in Florida, but sometimes performs in the Czech Republic.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Sources

(Czech) Radio Praha article
(English) Waldemar Matuska - Czech pop legend turns 70. Radio Praha article
(English) Otto Ulč. Political Participation in Czechoslovakia. The Journal of Politics, Vol. 33, No. 2 (May, 1971), pp. 422-447.