2019-07-22 Mon

A special "Zero Euro" souvenir banknote was released to celebrate the 80th birthday of a famous Czech pop singer named Karel Gott. A lot of fans and note collectors visited Prague and some even waited overnight to buy the souvenir banknote, even though it was a rainy Sunday. According to media reports, some fans came to the city three days before the sale began. Special ATMs were made in the shop of a local record company which sold these souvenir notes for 2 euros each. 5,000 such Zero Euro notes were released and all of them were sold within four hours. The sale was limited to two notes per buyer.

Born on 14th July 1939, Karel Gott started off as an electrician and later worked on his passion for opera singing. Today, he is known as "Divine Karel" or "the Golden Voice from Prague" and has won the title of most popular singer 42 times in the Golden Nightingale poll that takes place every year. With about 300 LPs and CDs, Karel Gott’s songs are popular in Germany as well. He has also given his voice to the title song for a children's TV series called "Maya the Bee". He has sung cover versions of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman" and Alphaville's "Forever Young". Most of his songs are written by Czech composers. He sang in the US and West Germany in the 1960s and also took part in the Eurovision song contest by representing Austria. He has won awards in Germany, Poland and Russia as well. German media called him by the name "Sinatra of the East". After the Soviet army invaded Prague in 1968, singers were barred from performing on stage. However, Gott remained popular even during this period. Apart from singing, Gott also likes to paint and act.

Image Courtesy: Google images