Hana Hegerová

Hana Hegerová (20 October 1931 – 23 March 2021^[1]) was a Slovak singer and actress. Often referred to as the Queen of Czechoslovak chanson, she gained popularity primarily as a singer of chansons. Outside of Czechoslovakia, Hegerová attained recognition especially in German-speaking countries.

Hana Hegerová
Hegerová in 2006
Born	(1931-10-20)20 October 1931 Bratislava, Czechoslovakia
Died	23 March 2021(2021-03-23) (aged 89) Prague, Czech Republic
Occupations	Singer actress
Years active	1953–2011
Spouse	Dalibor Heger (div.)
Children	Matúš Heger (1955–2015)
Musical career
Genres	Chanson
Instrument	Vocals

Early life

Hegerová was born Carmen Mária Štefánia Farkašová.^[2]

Career

In 1954, Hegerová played the title role in the film Frona under the name Hana Čelková. She made her singing debut in Tatra Revue in Bratislava in 1957. After she came to Prague, the foremost Czech actor Jan Werich offered her an engagement in the ABC Theatre [cs], but she refused.^[3] Hegerová performed at the Rokoko Theatre in Prague from 1958 until 2021.^[4] From 1961 to 1966 at the Semafor Theater, she appeared in the jazz opera Dobře placená procházka by Jiří Suchý (libretto) and Jiří Šlitr (music), and film Kdyby tisíc klarinetů (If a Thousand Clarinets). Hegerová's repertoire included many chansons by Czech and Slovak authors, and also Czech versions of songs from the repertoire of Édith Piaf ("Mylord"), Jacques Brel ("Ne me quitte pas"), and songs by Kurt Weill ("Surabaya Johnny" and "The Barbara Song") and many others. In 1967, Hana Hegerová appeared at the Paris Olympia.^[2]

In 2002, Heregová received a Medal of Merit from Czech President Václav Havel.^[2] In 2014, she received an Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk from President Miloš Zeman.

In August 2011, the national press announced that the diva decided to retire from the music industry, telling MusicServer: "I have decided that I no longer want it. I don't want to sing, I don't want to go public. I want to get rid of stress. Simply, the Hana Hegerová enterprise is terminated, only Hana Hegerová remains as a private person who finally wants to enjoy peaceful days with her dog. Wish me luck so that there are still lots of them left."^[5]

Illness and death

In December 2014, Hegerová was hospitalized with serious heart problems in the General University Hospital (Všeobecná fakultní nemocnice) in Prague.^[6]

She died on 23 March 2021 at 89 years old in Prague Hospital Na Homolce [cs] due to complications from a hip fracture.^[7]

Discography

Main article: Hana Hegerová discography

Studio albums 1966: Šansony s Hanou Hegerovou 1971: Recital 1973: Recital 2 1977: Lásko prokletá 1987: Potměšilý host 2010: Mlýnské kolo v srdci mém

Export albums 1967: Ich (aka Chansons) 1969: Hana Hegerová 1972: So geht es auf der Welt zu 1974: Fast ein Liebeslied 1975: Wir für euch 1987: Chansons (aka Wenn die Schatten)

Filmography

Year	Title		Director(s)
	Original	English
1954	Frona	Frona	Jiří Krejčík
1957	Tam na konečné	At the Terminus	Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos
1960	Přežil jsem svou smrt	I Survived Certain Death	Vojtěch Jasný
	Policejní hodina	The Hour of the Cop	Otakar Vávra
1962	Zhasněte lampióny	Turn Off Lanterns	Ján Roháč and Vladimír Svitáček
	Neděle ve všední den	A Weekday Sunday	Félix Máriássy
1963	Naděje	The Hope	Karel Kachyňa
	Konkurs	Audition	Miloš Forman
1965	Kdyby tisíc klarinetů	If a Thousand Clarinets	Ján Roháč and Vladimír Svitáček
1966	Dobře placená procházka (TV film)	A Well-Paid Walk	Miloš Forman and Ján Roháč
1967	Ta naše písnička česká	This Is Our Czech Song	Zdeněk Podskalský
	Sedm žen Alfonse Karáska	Seven Wives of Alfons Karásek
1974	Třicet případů majora Zemana	Thirty Cases of Major Zeman	Jiří Sequens
1988	Lovec senzací	Stunner-fisher	Martin Hollý
1989	Fabrik der Offiziere [de] (TV series)	The Officer Factory	Wolf Vollmar
1991	Poslední motýl	The Last Butterfly	Karel Kachyňa
2006	Kde lampy bloudí	Where the Lamps Roam	Jakub Kohák
2008	Nestyda	Nasty	Jan Hřebejk

Awards

Major awards

Year	Nominated work	Award	Category	Result
1962	"Szeptem"	Sopot Festival	Contest of Polish Songs – Best Interpretation	Silver	[A]
	"Ošklivá neděle"		International contest – Best Song	Bronze	[B]
			The Critics' Prize	Won	[8]
1968	Un­known	Prague City Award	Un­known	Won	[9]
1969		Festwochen Wiesbaden		Won
1983		tz Rose	July 15–22	Won	[10]
1988	Potměšilý host	Golden Note	Best Album	Won	[11]
	"Levandulová"		Best Song (shared with P.Hapka)	Won	[12]
	Herself		Best Female Singer	Won
2010		Anděl Awards	Female Singer of the Year	Nominated	[C]
	Mlýnské kolo v srdci mém		Album of the Year	Nominated	[D]
Lifetime honors and achievements
1974	Herself	H-D.Genscher Prize	Goldene Europa	Honored	[13]
		Académie française	Ordre du Mérite de l'Education Artistique – Chevalier	Honored
1995		Gramy Awards	The Hall of Fame	Inducted	[14]
2002		Václav Havel Prize	The Medal of Merit	Honored	[15]
2007		MOFFOM Award	Lifetime Achievement in Music Film	Honored	[16]
2012		Prague 1 Assembly	Honorary citizenship	Honored	[E]
2013		Pierre Lévy Prize	Ordre national du Mérite – Commandeur	Honored	[17]
2014		Miloš Zeman Prize	Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk – 1st Class	Honored	[18]

Notes

• A ^ "Szeptem" composed by Jerzy Abratowski for lyrics by Jacek Korczakowski, and the Gold award won by "Jesienna rozłąka" sung by Anita Traversi from Switzerland.^[8]
• B ^ Hegerová shared the Bronze award along with Emil Dimitrov who entered the contest with "Arlekino". The Gold went to Greek Jeanne Yovanna for "Ti Krima", while Silver won by "Stav" by Ester Reichstadt from Israel.^[8]
• C ^ The award for the Female Singer of the Year went to Lucie Bílá, while the second nominee was Lucie Vondráčková.^[19]
• D ^ The category of the Album of the Year won by Tepláky aneb Kroky Františka Soukupa set by Nightwork band. Outlet People by Toxique group featured the rest of nominated works.^[19]
• E ^ According to the municipal authorities, Prague 1 awards the Honorary citizenship title only exceptionally. As such, Hegerová became the first female ever and the fifth honoree in total, respectively (following writer Josef Topol, photographer Ladislav Sitenský, conductor Jaroslav Hrnčíř and architect Josef Hyzler).^[13]

Music polls

Zlatý slavík, Czechoslovakia Year Nominated work Category Result 1962 Herself Singer #6[F] [20] 1963 #6[G] 1964 Female Singer #5 1965 #7 1966 #6 1967 #5 1968 #8 1969 — 1970 — 1971 — 1972 — 1973 — 1974 — 1975 #8 1976 #7 1977 #8 1978 #7 1979 #8 1980 #12 [21] 1981 #12 1982 #10 [22] 1983 #13 1984 #18 [23] 1985 #17 1986 #17 [24] 1987 #17 1988 #20 [25] 1989 #14 1990 #14 [26] 1991 #14

Český slavík, Czech Republic Year Nominated work Category Result 1997 Herself Female Singer #15 [27] 1998 #13 [28] 1999 #17 [29] 2000 #22 [30] 2001 #22 [31] 2002 #17 [32] 2003 #17 [33] 2004 #17 [34] 2005 #12 [35] 2006 #12 [36] 2007 #14 [37] 2008 #14 [38] 2009 #16 [39] 2010 #15 [40] 2011 #15 [41] 2012 #28 [42] 2013 #25 [43] 2014 #27 [44]

Notes

• F ^ The initial two editions of the Zlatý slavík poll included only one category for both, either male or female vocalists. Else in 1962, Hegerová would be ranked as the third most popular female singer, following Yvetta Simonová and Eva Pilarová.^[20]
• G ^ In 1963, Hegerová entered the poll as the second most voted female vocalist in the country, following Pilarová.^[20]

See also

• Hana a jej bratia (Slovak film, featuring music by Hegerová, from 2000)
• Strážce plamene ("Kdo by se díval nazpátek")
• Strážce plamene v obrazech ("Kdo by se díval nazpátek")
• Honorific nicknames in popular music