1988 - 71st Segment: “No Lies”
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 1988.
On October 10th, Lubomír Štrougal’s federal government resigned. A new government was appointed two days later headed by Ladislav Adamec.
After many years, on the 70th anniversary of the birth of Czechoslovakia, October 28th was once again proclaimed to be a national holiday.
On December 16th at 4pm, signal blocking devices meant to limit foreign broadcasting in Czechoslovakia were disrupted after 36 years. Suddenly, Radio Free Europe and Voice of America were heard clearly by Czechoslovak audiences.
In the second half of the 1980’s, a new generation of maturing amateur musicians found it difficult to break into television and radio. Their success was restricted by committees who controlled various aspects of the music, especially the lyrics. Žentour was one of the few bands from that decade to successfully navigate the network of pitfalls and to address the young generation through records and radio broadcasts.
The lead singer of the band that released the hit “No Lies” was Janek Ledecký, one of today’s most successful Czech composers and the father of the Olympic champion, Ester Ledecká. The 1988 hit is Nenechme si lhát.