2003 – 86th Segment: “SMS”
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 continue with the year 2003.
On February 28 a presidential election was held in the Czech Republic, with two candidates in the running: Václav Klaus and Jan Sokol. It was not until the third round that Klaus secured victory.
In June a nationwide referendum was held to decide if the Czech Republic should enter the European Union. Turnout was 55.2% with 77.3% of voters opting to join.
On December 22 Pavel Nedvěd became the second Czech in history to win the Ballon d'Or as the European footballer of the year.
On August 31 the writer, publicist and one-time minister of culture Pavel Tigrid passed away.
There were few surprises in the 2003 edition of the long-running Czech Nightingale music competition, which is voted on by the public. Rockers Kabát were named best group while Karel Gott and Lucie Bílá triumphed once again in the male and female vocalist categories. Bílá was also voted Absolute Nightingale, the competition’s overall winner.
