Czech Musician. He was voted the country's best male singer in the annual Czech Nightingale national music award 41 times, the first time in 1963 and the last in 2017. He was also successful in German-speaking countries, where he was known as "the Golden Voice of Prague", and won the Goldene Stimmgabel award in 1982, 1984, and 1995. He released almost 300 LPs, the first as early as 1965. His latest LP, entitled The Right One, was released in 2018. Over the course of his career, he sold an estimated 50–100 million records worldwide, 23 million of them in the German-speaking market, and about 15 million in Czechoslovakia and its successor states (the Czech Republic and Slovakia). In 1960, he made the decision to become a professional singer and studied opera at the Prague Conservatory under Konstantin Karenin who instructed him not only in classical Italian pieces, but also in popular music. In 1962, Gott released his first single and that same year, he appeared in the first Golden Nightingale national poll, placing 49th with three votes. One of his best-known hits was the title music to the animated film series Maya the Honey Bee. He recorded the theme in German, later also in Slovak and Czech for the dubbed versions in those languages. On May 3, 1977, he was awarded the title of Merited Artist. The following year, he received the Golden Hat of Cologne that is awarded annually to a prominent cultural or social figure. The 1980s were marked by international success for Gott, including the filming of the musical In the Track of Bel Canto in Italy in 1981. In 1983, he received the Gold Medal of Hermann Löns in Munich, Germany, for his role in the development of German traditional song. On April 30, 1985, he was awarded the title of National Artist for exceptional artistic contributions. In 1986, he received Polydor's Golden Needle, previously only awarded to Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan. In March 1991 he was the first artist inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Academy of Popular Music, and he was awarded the Supraphon Diamond Record Award on September 8, 1992, in recognition of record sales of 13 million in Czechoslovakia. He announced his retirement in 1990 and went on a farewell tour. The success of the tour made him change his decision to retire and in 1993, he started an artistic agency with František Janeček that produced his records and managed his artistic activities. He remained popular in a number of countries, and performed widely outside the Czech Republic. On September 29, 2000 he played a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City. In 2008, he appeared on Bushido's album Heavy Metal Payback, performing a duet called "Für immer jung", a cover of "Forever Young" by Alphaville. In 2009 he was awarded a Distinguished Merit Medal by the Czech state. His German lyricist since 2001 was Filip Albrecht, who wrote over 20 songs for him. In May 2014, he released his autobiography Zwischen Zwei Welten (Between Two Worlds). During the 1990s, he also started to focus on painting. The first exhibition of his paintings took place in 1992 at the Prague Christ Child Gallery, and his work was since exhibited in Berlin, Moscow, Munich, Cologne, Vienna, and Bratislava. On September 12, 2019 it was announced that Gott was suffering from acute myeloid leukemia and was receiving treatment in Prague University Hospital. After almost three weeks, he died in his sleep in the company of his family. In response to his death, the Czech government announced a funeral in Žofín Palace with state honors and that it will be a day of national mourning.