Jiří Helekal (born 13 February 1947, in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

) is a multi-talented

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

singer and performer who has maintained his fame through forty years of his career in his native land. He is capable of playing many musical instruments, as well being a professional actor, appearing in many successful musicals.

Early life

Jiri Helekal grew up in the centre of Prague, near today's

Praha hlavní nádraží Praha hlavní nádraží is the largest railway station in Prague, Czech Republic. It opened in 1871 as Franz Josef Station, after Franz Joseph I of Austria. During the First Republic and from 1945 to 1948 the station was called Wilson Stati ...

. He has been focused on music since he was 22, when he started to play the violin. But he was soon also fascinated by playing the cello and switched over to it. He was taught by Professor Sadl and afterwards successfully graduated from Jezek's Conservatory; he became even more interested in music. He had to postpone his artistic work due to compulsory

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

. Eventually the break took longer – he worked as a furniture remover and also unloaded wood and coal.

Significance

When he achieved his first musical successes, Jiri Helekal was already able to play the guitar, violin, cello, piano, flute, banjo, contrabass, accordion and others. One of his first greater successes was in a band called ''Shut Up'' (beat and country). Then he defected to a band called “Comets” (rock'n'roll, twist, rhythm & blues, soul, big beat, pop), at that time composed of Hladik (guitar), Žižka (saxophone),

Vladimír Mišík Vladimír Mišík (born 8 March 1947) is a Czech musician and politician. He is the founder or co-founder of the bands The Matadors, Matadors, Blue Effect, and Etc (band), Etc.... Career Music Mišík founded his first band, Uragán, as a teena ...

and Jan Hrůza (both sang with Helekal). Later he established his own, mainly country, path. Supported by his two daughters (Katerina and Aneta) he found ‘Hele-kaly family’ and released five albums: ''Rambler oasis 1'', ''Rambler oasis 2'', ''Rambler oasis 3'', ''Ringlet in the grass'' and ''At the time''. At the turn of the 60's and 70's his acting career took off. Between 1969 and 1973 he performed in the '' Semafor'' theatre (a very prestigious theatre in Prague) and then went on to the

Broadway Theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

(also a popular Prague theatre specializing mainly in musicals), where he is still acting in musicals, for instance Cleopatra (his biggest success), Angelica and The Three Musketeers. {{DEFAULTSORT:Helekal, Jiri Czech rock singers Czech pop singers 1947 births Living people 21st-century Czech male singers Singers from Prague 20th-century Czech male singers Czechoslovak male singers Czech violinists Czech cellists Czech guitarists Czech banjoists Czech flautists Czech pianists Czech accordionists