Gipsy.cz

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Gipsy.cz
Gipsy.cz live at the Pulse Festival in London (2007)
Gipsy.cz live at the Pulse Festival in London (2007)
General information
Genre (s) Rap , Roma music , funk , ethnopop
founding 2006
Website www.gipsy.cz
Current occupation
Radoslav "Gipsy" Banga
Violin , singing
 Vojta "Béla" Lavička
Accordion , guitar, vocals
 Petr "Durman" Surmaj
Jan "Rotvajler" Surmaj
former members
Violin, singing
 Noemi Fialová (2009)
Guitar, vocals
 Tibor Žida (2009)
Matěj Černý (2009)
Oliver Lipenský (2009)

Gipsy.cz is a Czech music group. The band combines elements of American rap music with that of the traditional music of the Czech Roma . The texts are written in Czech , English and Romani .

history

Gipsy.cz was founded in 2006 by the rapper Radoslav Banga, also known as Gipsy , who was already a successful solo artist ; Vojta Lavička, an experienced prímás ; as well as the brothers Jan Surmaj (double bass player) and Petr Surmaj (guitarist and accordionist).

The members of Gipsy.cz received a gold record for their debut album Romano Hip Hop , which was released at the end of 2006 . The theme song became a top 10 hit in the Czech radio charts in 2007. It was also voted “Song of the Year” by the readers of the Czech music magazine Filter .

Gipsy.cz received an Anděl Award , the Czech version of the Grammy Award, in the “Discovery of the Year” category. The group took part in the Czech preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with the song Muloland , but only took second place.

In spring 2007 Gipsy.cz went on a European tour through Austria, Great Britain (including the Glastonbury Festival , where they played as the first Czech band), the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Germany ( Viertelfest in Bremen ). Gipsy.cz also met with a positive response in East Asia: In October 2007 the band gave six concerts in the South Korean cities of Seoul and Ulsan . The Japanese television broadcaster NHK presented Gipsy.cz in 2007 as part of a documentary series on European culture. On November 23, 2007 Gipsy.cz had an appearance at the Parisian nightclub Divan Du Monde .

Gipsy.cz while shooting the music video for Do You Wanna (2009)

In 2008 Gipsy.cz returned with the new album Reprezent . In the run-up, a song on the album entitled A na závěr si s námi dejte trochu té Čunárny sparked discussions, as the text mocked the politician Jiří Čunek, who was known for his anti-Roma statements . In order to avoid a possible legal action, Gipsy.cz finally removed some text passages. With Benga Beating , the band took part again in 2008 in the Czech preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest , but again failed to qualify.

Jan and Petr Surmaj left Gipsy.cz in January 2009 because from then on they wanted to make music in the style of Gypsy Jazz . The remaining band members Radoslav Banga and Vojta Lavička were joined a short time later by four young musicians, all of whom had studied at a conservatory .

The public broadcaster of the Czech Republic ( Česká televize ) selected Gipsy.cz as the representative of the Czech Republic at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow in an internal decision . TV viewers were able to vote by SMS between March 1 and 14, 2009, to choose which song Gipsy.cz should use. There were two titles to choose from: Do You Wanna and Aven Romale . The winning title was Aven Romale with 53% of the vote. Gipsy.cz presented Aven Romale live on March 21, during the Anděl Awards ceremony . But they were eliminated in the first semifinals of the ESC: Of 18 participants, Gipsy.cz came last with 0 points.

In July 2009, the band returned to their original line-up. In the same month, a music video for the song Reprezent was released , in which the recently deceased singer Michael Jackson is portrayed as an angel . In February and March 2011, Gipsy.cz gave concerts in Australia for the first time as part of the Karavan Festival . In April of the same year, their third album Desperado was released.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Romano hip hop
  CZ 8th 09/2007 (45 weeks)
Reprezent
  CZ 11 24/2008 (13 weeks)
Desperado
  CZ 39 17/2011 (3 weeks)
UpGrade
  CZ 36 37/2013 (1 week)
Singles
Romano hip hop
  CZ 6th 08/2007 (18 weeks)
Benga Beating
  CZ 51 11/2008 (9 weeks)
Desperado
  CZ 37 13/2011 (13 weeks)

Albums

  • 2006: Romano Hip Hop
  • 2008: Reprezent
  • 2011: Desperado
  • 2013: UpGrade

Singles

  • 2007: Romano Hip Hop
  • 2007: Jednou
  • 2008: Benga Beating
  • 2009: Aven Romale
  • 2009: Do You Wanna
  • 2009: Reprezent
  • 2011: Desperado

Note: In the Czech Republic it is unusual to publish CD singles. The songs listed here are "singles" for which a music video exists, but which are mostly only used for promotion.

Web links

Commons : Gipsy.cz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ biography at eurovision.tv
  2. ↑ official MySpace profile from Gipsy.cz (English) ( Memento from June 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Andreas Wiedemann: Krystof dominates this year's "Andel" award "( radio.cz )
  4. ↑ Quarter Festival 2007 in Bremen ( viertelfest-bremen.de ) ( Memento from March 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b biography at the label of the band dld.indies.eu, contains a detailed concert list (English)
  6. ↑ Till Janzer: Music against Racism ( radio.cz )
  7. ↑ Stanislav Dvorak: Poslechněte si: o píseň Čunkovi od Gipsy.cz ( novinky.cz (Czech))
  8. ↑ Gipsy.cz sing "Aven Romale" for the Czech Republic! (eurofire.blog.de)
  9. ↑ all information about the nomination of Gipsy.cz and the process of voting for the title choice (English)
  10. ↑ Embassy of the Czech Republic in Canberra: Czech musical group Gipsy.cz is coming to Australia
  11. ↑ a b Chart sources: CZ1 CZ2