Václav Neckář is a Czech actor and singer who has worked with radio since 1964. In October 2023 Czech Radio inducted him into its Hall of Fame.
Václav Neckář is a Czech actor and singer. According to Czech Radio, he has captivated listeners with his voice for more than fifty years, and in October 2023, shortly before his eightieth birthday, he was inducted into the Czech Radio Hall of Fame [1].
Beginnings with radio
He began working with Czechoslovak Radio as early as 1964, in Plzeň, where he made his first recordings in the studio, among them the song Jen tak, written by Boban Ondráček and Jan Schneider. From 1965 he performed in Prague on the stage of the Rokoko theatre and at the same time appeared with the Dance Orchestra of Czechoslovak Radio, whose conductor and musical dramaturg was Josef Vobruba [1].
Since then he has sung hundreds of songs, and many of them became very popular with radio listeners. This is confirmed by the Golden Nightingale poll, in which he was already third in 1965, behind Karel Gott and Waldemar Matuška. He remained in the top places until 1981 [1].
Hall of Fame and other awards
He entered the Czech Radio Hall of Fame on Saturday 21 October 2023, two days before his eightieth birthday. It happened in a live broadcast of the stations Dvojka and Pohoda from the Rokoko theatre, where his professional career once began. The radio's programme director Ondřej Nováček presented him with a glass statuette of a microphone and a large stamp bearing an inscription about the Hall of Fame and his name. The music publisher Supraphon at the same time honoured him with the title Supraphon Legend for his long-standing collaboration. During the evening Neckář also launched a new album [1].
In the field of music he was only the second recipient of this award. The first to receive it was Marta Kubišová, to whom it was presented in 2022 at the Concert for Marta by the radio's director general René Zavoral. At the Rokoko theatre Neckář was congratulated by, among others, Marta Kubišová and his brother Jan Neckář. The birthday celebrations were opened in Uherské Hradiště, in the radio programme Pohovka Jožky Kubáníka [1].
A song from 1968
Czech Television reported that the singer returned to a song from 1968, recorded just after the invasion, and that almost sixty years have passed since then. It is titled Píseň pro mne and was composed by his brother Jan. At the time listeners heard it only once. In the renewed version the original vocal can be heard, accompanied by a video clip made up of archive and current footage [2].