The Czech Republic becomes the last major
European counry to enter the Eurovision Song Contest, as they make
they long overdue debut in the competition in Helsinki. On several
previous occasions Czech television has toyed with idea of entering
the contest and in 2005 they withdrew just before the final
deadline.
This year however, no effort has been spared in
bringuing attention to the contest in the Czech Republic, with some
of the biggest names in the country's first national final. A
couple of week's before that final, the ten songs in competition
were previewed on radio and television and people were allowed to
vote for two weeks in advance of the actual show on March 10th.
Unfortunatly the song submitted by Helena
Vondráčková, the biggest star in the Czech music industry
over the last four decades was disqualified, meaning that only nine
songs competed in the final. While the details of the results have
not been made public, it is believed that almost one hundred
thousand votes were cast, and over a quarter of those went to the
eventual winners, the rock group Kabát with a song written and
composed by the band, "Malá Dáma" (Little Lady).
Kabát was founded in the city of Teplice in
1983 by bassist Milan Špalek and guitarist Tomáš Krulich.
Drummer Radek "Hurvajs" Hurcík and singer Josef Vojtek
joined the band later on. Another guitarist Ota Vána completed the
line-up in 1990.
In the beginning, Kabát
operated as a local rock band just playing to audiences in their
hometown and its neighbourhood. Their breakthrough came in 1991,
when the first album "Má Ji Motorovou" (She Has It
Engine-driven) and it was followed by "Žive" (Live) the
same year. both albums were well received and the band signed an
exclusive contract with the Monitor/EMI CR publishing.
Their
first major label release, the self-produced "Devky ty to
znaj" (Bitches, They Know That) came in 1993 and a
compilation album "Colorado" was released the following
year, selling almost 100,000 copies, a very high figures for sales
in the Czech Republic. This started a series of increasingly
popular albums which the band released during the 1990s
In
2002 Kabát celebrated their tenth anniversary of its first album
release with a best of double-album "Suma Sumárum". It
gained platinum sales within the first month on the market and to
date there have been an enormous 128,000 copies of the album sold
in the Czech Republic and Slovakia up to date. The "Suma
Sumárum" CD became quintuple platinum and the band was
honoured by 2002 Andel Award for the best selling album in all
categories. Kabát finished third in the Golden Nightingale Award
poll for the best band of the year. The album became one of the
biggest selling locally produced album of all time in the region
and the band went on tour to celebrate with a containing 12
technically unique shows, watched by a total of more than 60,000
spectators.
During 2002, the band
introduced videoclips of songs "Pohoda" (Ease) and
"Šaman" (Medicine Man) in prestigious chart of TV Nova
- ESO (Ace). Both titles captured "Red Ace" (for six
straight wins) and "Pohoda" became the most successful
clip of the year reaching the all-time record of votes within
competition´s existence. In terms of it, the videoclip was reset
in the ranking and won "Red Ace" once more.
On
October 7th 2003, Kabát started another tour as a forerunner of
the new album "Dole v dole". After three very succesful
concerts in Slovakia, the tour crossed the Czech border on October
12. The "Dole v dole" album was released two days later
and became triple-platinum within three days of sale, which is
extremely rare. Another videoclip "Dole v dole" was
released after release of the album and also captured the
"Red Ace" award, being voted the best music of the
year. The band's 2003 tour was the biggest selling concert
tour in the Czech music history. Only Robbie Williams had
similar success in the Czech capitol that year.
In
the spring of 2004, the group underwent another concert tour,
promoting its album "Dole v dole". Its high
standard show withstood comparisons to similar rock-band shows
elsewhere in the world.
Given the band's rock
credentials, Kabát was a surprising selection when listed among
the acts competing to become the first Czech Eurovision act.
However with their undoubted and continuing popularity, they were
always one of the favourites to get to Helsinki.
Like
Finnish rock band Lordi in 2006, Kabá has done almost no
international promotion for their Eurovision entry but that's
where the similarity ends. The song is one of the rank outsiders
to win the contest, and is also failing to register in most
internet polls.
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CZECH REPUBLIC @ EUROVISION