Prague, Oct 27 (CTK) – Czech singer Marta Kubisova, signatory of the Charter 77 human rights manifesto who was persecuted under the communist regime, ends her music career on the occasion of her 75th birthday on November 1. She gave a gala concert in Prague within her farewell tour on Friday.
The tour entitled “Marta Last Time” started in Kosice, east Slovakia, on September 26 and will end in her native town of Ceske Budejovice, south Bohemia, on her birthday.
Kubisova sang her greatest hits as well as the songs from her latest album Soul in the sold-out Lucerna music Hall on Friday and invited several guests to the stage, including singers Vaclav Neckar, Lucie Bila and Aneta Langerova.
Kubisova will also receive the “multi-platina” record for Songs and Ballads, her re-edited first album from 1969 of which a record number of 420,000 pieces were sold.
Kubisova was one of the most popular singers in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s. She won the Golden Nightingale poll for the best pop singer three times. Apart from her solo performances, she also formed the Golden Kids pop trio with Helena Vondrackova and Neckar.
Her song “Prayer for Marta” became a symbol of the national resistance after the Soviet-led occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops in 1968 that crashed the Prague Spring reform movement.
Despite her popularity, the regime banned Kubisova from performing as a singer for her open condemnation of the Soviet invasion and her civic stances. She signed the Charter 77 human rights manifesto in 1977 and was one of this anti-regime movement’s spokespersons in 1977-78.
She could return to the stage only after the collapse of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in November 1989.
In 1995, Kubisova received a medal of merit for her courageous civic stances from president Vaclav Havel, one of the Charter 77 initiators and spokespersons as well as her personal friends.
When she turned 70 five years ago, Kubisova was awarded the French Legion of Honour (Legion d’Honneur) order for her involvement in the fight against the totalitarian regime.
