Abstrakt
Karel Gott reached the status of a pop star in 1960s and maintained it till the present day. He was very popular not only in Czechoslovakia, but also in the whole Eastern bloc and German-speaking countries.
In Czechoslovakia he served as a unique element of the official communist culture while enjoying popularity in Western Europe. The analysis explains Gott's stardom status as a case of structured polysemy.
Communist propaganda appropriated certain symbolic features of his image and performance while his mainstream audience focused on his professionalism, entertaining qualities and uniqueness of being a 'Sinatra from the East'. The essay offers an analyses the chronological development of Gott's career, discussing the interplay between his public image, music production and cultural and political contexts.