Zlatý slavÃÂk () was a Czechoslovak music poll and award of the same name established by the magazine Mladý svÃÂt in 1962, and broadcast on television. It was held until 1991, when ÃÂeský slavÃÂk took its place. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992 and its division into Czechia and Slovakia, the latter got its own award, named Slovenský slávik. Karel Gott was both the first and most highly decorated recipient of Zlatý slavÃÂk.
In 1962, as the popular Czechoslovak magazine Mladý svÃÂt was generating ideas for a music poll, one of its young editors, later actor and director Ladislav Smoljak, came up with the name "golden nightingale", after a children's toy.
In the first year of the poll, 797 votes were returned; the highest vote tally registered in its 29-year history was over 115,000. From 1969 until the collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, the poll's results were falsified for political reasons.
Award categories changed over the years. In 1962, 1963, and 1970, there was a joint male and female singer category; the song category was eliminated after 1968.
In 1970, Marta Kubià ¡ová was set to win her fourth slavÃÂk, but since she had been banned from speaking publicly by the government due to her anti-communist lyrics and activism, the editors of Mladý svÃÂt were forced to change the results at the behest of the Czech Office for Press and Information: the male and female singer categories were thus combined, leading to a victory by Karel Gott. Kubià ¡ová received her award retroactively in 1990 by then-editor-in-chief of Mladý svÃÂt, Luboà ¡ Beniak.
Over the course of its 29 years, 6 male and 7 female singers, 8 bands, and 7 songs received the award.
Top winners
Karel Gott (22), Hana Zagorová (9), NaÃÂa Urbánková (5), Marta Kubià ¡ová (4), and the band Elán (4) won the most trophies.
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