1989 - 72nd Segment: “Miss Moscow”

In this series we present 100 songs which have gone down in the history of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. On Czech Radio’s web pages you can find a poll, in which you can vote for the best hit from the past century. We look forward to your vote! We continue with the year 1989.

On November 17th at 4pm, the Student March started in Prague 2 at Albertov, sparking the so-called Velvet Revolution.

On November 29th, the amendment to the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was voted on.

On December 29th, President Václav Havel was elected President by the still Communist Parliament.

The Velvet Revolution of 1989 brought about significant changes - even in the music world. You could say that that year's real hits were the chants of “we have had enough” and “we have bare hands” which accompanied the November demonstrations, or Jaroslav Hutka’s song “Náměšť” which echoed through the streets of Prague where he sings “a weapon is powerful, justice even more so”.

Photo: Supraphon

However, the true hit of 1989 was a song by Ondřej Soukup and Gabriela Osvaldova called “Miss Moscow.” It was sung by Jiří Korn and was accompanied by an excellent music video. The song was not hateful towards Czechoslovakia's big Eastern neighbour, but it did express a certain irony and incredibly witty exaggeration.

Vote for the best song of the century!