Anděl Awards 2025: Czech music’s biggest night filled with protest and political messages
On Saturday, April 11, the winners of the Anděl Awards were ceremonially announced at the Křižík Pavilions in Prague, so we have decided to dedicate today’s show to these prestigious awards, organized by the Czech Academy of Music since 1991.
A total of 14 awards were presented to 13 artists, and today we are going to take a closer look at some of them. The artist who had to come up on stage twice to accept awards was musician Michal Prokop, who won in two categories: Album of the Year and Male Singer of the Year.
This rock singer and former politician has been musically active since the late 1960s with his band Framus Five. Their latest album, Ostraka, has been praised by critics and is considered among the best records of Prokop’s career.
The winner in the Female Singer of the Year category at this year’s Anděl Awards is Klára Vytisková. She previously won the awards in 2008 in the Discovery of the Year category and again in 2015 as Female Singer of the Year for her debut album Home. In 2025, she released her latest album, VEGA, featuring songs written entirely in Czech.
A key step of this year’s Anděl Awards was giving award recipients free space to speak, which they used at their own discretion. Marie April, honored as Discovery of the Year, highlighted in an emotional speech the vulnerability of artists who “put their skin on the line,” and the importance of support from both family and the professional community.
Marie April is a twenty-year-old Czech-American singer and musician based in Prague. In January 2024, she founded the six-member band Marie April & The Fools, which blends jazz, soul, rock, and indie in a distinctive, genre-fluid style. In a short time, the band established a strong presence on Prague’s underground scene and appeared at a number of domestic and international festivals, captivating audiences with their energy, authenticity, and strong onstage chemistry.
In May 2025, Marie released her debut album tangerines - an intimate and raw reflection on coming of age, loss, the process of grieving, and the search for identity. The record received strong acclaim from both critics and listeners for its openness, lyrical depth, and striking musical production.
The winner of the Band of the Year category is Mňága a Žďorp, which released the album Hoříš? Hořím! last year. Singer Petr Fiala thanked all the members who have passed through the band, especially the “founding fathers.”
Mňága a Žďorp began forming as early as 1983, with frequent changes in its lineup. Initially, the band performed under the name Slepé střevo, and its members were also active in other groups at the same time.
They became widely known thanks to the hit Hodinový hotel, which is the opening track on their debut album Made in Valmez. Their most recent release, their fifteenth studio album, came out in 2025 and is titled Hoříš? Hořím!
The award for Video of the Year, according to the academy members, went to singer-songwriter Yasha 96, whose real name is Jáchym Kovář. Kovář spoke about the importance of culture and expressed opposition to the planned abolition of licence fees, which the Ministry of Culture, led by Oto Klempíř, intends to implement. Harsh words were voiced, along with a raised middle finger directed at the Minister of Culture, Filip Turek, as well as Tomio Okamura.
After the release of his debut album The Boy Who Came Here From the Dust, Yasha 96 was described as a hidden gem of the Czech alternative music scene, with the record even considered one of the best indie-pop albums of 2021 on the show Reflektor. His new album Filip reflects Yasha’s vision of how fluid the contemporary concept of music is.
The Slovak Album of the Year went to the record Slovenská strela by Richard Müller and the band Banket. The award was accepted by members of the band’s current lineup, Remigius Klačanský and Dominik Kopcsay.
Their speech was similarly critical. “Let’s value freedom! Back home in Slovakia, awards like these are no longer allowed to be broadcast on television,” Klačanský and Kopcsay reminded the audience.
Open criticism of current government officials was voiced repeatedly at the Ceremony of Anděl Awards. Iris Habson-Mazur from the band Ida the Young read a manifesto drawing attention to the genocide of civilians in the Gaza Strip and to the responsibility of global brands.
Jakub J. Jirásek also expressed support for Czech Radio and Czech Television, as well as for the current system of licence fees as a tool for maintaining free public-service media.
In his closing speech, Michal Prokop, stating that everything important had already been said, reaffirmed the essential role of reflecting on the world around us through artistic expression, as a means of cross-genre and intergenerational sharing and mutual understanding.
