Renew: 19/10/2022 16:02
Issued by: 19/10/2022, 4:02 p.m.

Prague – The Year and Day Exhibition in the historic building of the National Museum from Thursday, October 20 until the end of this year will commemorate the 70th birthday of composer and singer Miroslav birka. The exhibition, organized chronologically according to the chapters of Honza Vedral’s Close Up book, will offer about 350 exhibits showing the professional and personal life of one of the most important figures of Czechoslovak popular music. The native of Bratislava, who in 1982 became the first Slovakian Golden Nightingale and the second after Waldemar Matušek to beat Karel Gott in this poll, died last November 10 at the age of 69.

As part of the exhibition, visitors can see, among other things, the birch gramophone from his youth, the Anděl award from the Czech Academy of Music for Double Album, his signature leather jacket and the glasses he has worn in recent years. The atmosphere is complemented by posters from birka concerts, album covers, and previously unpublished photos. Those who are interested can listen to the hits and video clips of birko using the headphones provided by the organizers of the National Museum for the exhibition.

“We have no special requirements from our side. But of course the museum is full of visitors, has some fire safety regulations and of course we monitor noise decibels, not only in terms of health protection, but also so that the exhibits we have here don’t interfere with each other. We warn exhibition creators, who are used to large stages, that they will have to adapt a little to the operation of the museum, but I don’t think the exhibition is impoverished in any way,” Michal Lukeš, director general of the National Museum, told TK today.

The exhibition, which is located in a space consisting of parts of the concert stage, is equipped with 28 panels with various information. “We don’t want it to be an ordeal, but for people to have fun. Meky wants to put show business into the National Museum,” said Kateřina birková, the singer’s widow.

Part of the celebration of Birka’s 70th birthday, which will fall on October 21, is also a commemorative concert with the participation of domestic and foreign musicians, taking place at the London club 229 Venue and at the NTC Arena in Bratislava. The next one takes place on October 21 at Prague’s O2 University.

The Czech Music Museum of the National Museum collaborates on the exhibition, which documents Czech music in a global context and its collection includes thousands of unique collectible items that commemorate, among other things, Czech greats such as Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana. In addition to classical music, the Czech Music Museum deals with popular music, its developments and modern trends.

birka is best known as the author of the melodic songs Atlantída, Nemoderný chalan and Katrin. During his more than forty year career in the music world, he became famous as a soloist of songs that he also composed himself. He released more than three dozen records in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany, and performed concerts almost all over the world. He comes from a Slovak-English family, the love of his life was the famous British band The Beatles. Already in the late 60s, he was at the birthplace of the rock band Bratislava Modus. He recorded his first hit Zažni in 1977, and four years later he founded the group Limit with Lac Lučeni and started his own path.

Birka pop music art