Czech singing star Karel Gott marries
PRAGUE (AFP) — Czech and international crooner Karel Gott has married his long-time girlfriend, Ivana Machackova, his media representative in Prague told AFP on Tuesday.
"The two got married in Las Vegas at 4.30 local time on Monday," Jiri Horcica said.
"Karel was inspired by Las Vegas, where he launched his international career with a half-year contract at a hotel in 1967, to ask Ivana to marry him," he added.
The 68-year-old singer, who has developed a large following in Germany and Russia during a career stretching back almost half a century, is expecting a second child with his 31-year-old girlfriend of seven years.
Born in 1939 in Pilsen, in the west of the Czech Republic, Gott abandoned his electrician's training in his 20's to devote himself to music.
Since then, he has produced around 150 different LPs and CDs and sold tens of millions of copies with styles ranging from rock and roll to country, blues, and opera. The phenomenal output is sung in Czech, German, Russian and English.
Gott is going strong on many fronts and can still command a large audience. He was one of the main stars of a open air pop concert in the centre of Prague on New Year's eve sponsored by a private TV broadcaster
