Jiří Korn

17 May 1949, Prague

Jiří Korn began singing at an early age, beginning with the band Rebels. In the early 1970s, he was a bass guitar player in the rock band Olympic, but he also performed in the music theatre Semafor in Prague. His first solo hit was the swing retro song Yvetta (1971), composed by Karel Svoboda, which was successful not only in Czechoslovakia, but also in the German Democratic Republic.

From the beginning of his career, his expression was characterised by originality and experimentation. Apart from retro and comedy songs, such as My Grandfather Taught Me to Yodel (Můj dědeček mě učívával jódlovat, 1975) and Robinson (1977), his repertoire included a diverse mixture of styles ranging from the casual ballad Grief is Postponed (Žal se odkládá) to reinterpretations of Broadway melodies with Helena Vondráčková, with whom he made up a popular duo for many years. The pop music scene during Normalisation in the 1980s was shocked by his radical change of image and move towards electronic music. While collaborating with progressive rock musicians Michael Kocáb and Ondřej Soukup, he made a distinctive duet with Vilém Čok Karel is Probably Bringing Tea (Karel nese asi čaj) and the energetic pop song Miss Moscow (Miss Moskva), followed by the ballad I Still Have You in My Arms (Ještě tě mám plnou náruč, 1989).

Korn has always had a reputation of a perfect professional, capable of creating an excellent, sophisticated stage show. He was a student of tap dance master Frank Towen and later collaborated with Richard Hes and his dance group Uno. He became popular for his performances in the television show Maybe a Magician Will Come (Možná přijde i kouzelník, 1983–2000) and in the popular fairy tale Almost King (Honza málem králem, 1977) he played the leading role and sang the theme song The Sun Shines Overhead (Svítí slunce nad hlavou).

In the 1990s, his domain was musical roles, in which he could fully apply his singing and expressive abilities, as well as his moves. His performances in musicals Les Misérables (1992 and 1993), Dracula (1995) and The Addams Family (2014) were highly-acclaimed by the audiences as well as the critics. He received the Thalia Award twice, in 2004 and 2017. In 2002 he surprised the public as a member of the vocal quartet 4TET, which sings world hits and songs from his repertoire in precise a cappella adaptations.