Slovak 80s Music Hits

« »
Print


Here you will find some of the greatest and most popular Slovak songs from my childhood in Czechoslovakia. These definitely bring back good memories! This is part 1, don’t forget to check out Part 2.

Peter Nagy


My favorite singer when I was growing up was Peter Nagy (his last name originating from Hungarian, and is thus pronounced as if spelled Naď). This song is titled “Láska je tu s vami“, meaning Love is here with you (all). The chorus continue: Buďte s ňou (be with it/her) / Láska je tu s nami (Love is here with us) / Buďme s ňou (Let’s be with her/it) / Chce sa nás dotknúť (It/she want’s to touch us).


Another very popular song of Peter Nagy is this one, called Kristínka. In Slovak, it’s very common to make diminutives of nouns to indicate that something is nice or cute. For instance, here are couple common girl names: Lucia, Martina, Katarína, Petra, Michaela, Jana. However, most people would call them (definitely their boyfriends) Lucka, Martinka, Katka, Peťa, Miška, Janka. Kristínka is the diminutive of Kristína – Christine. This song tells about a girl who fell to her death while rock climbing: Spíš Kristínka, snáď iba spíš, neverím, poď a vstaň, ten pád bol možno len klam (you are sleeping Christine, perhaps you are just sleeping, I don’t believe, come and wake up, that fall was maybe just an illusion)


And one more by Peter Nagy. The title of this song is “Aj tak sme stále frajeri“. I don’t think that the word frajer has a direct counterpart in English. At least, in the context used here. Frajer means boyfriend. However, it also means something like the man, as in “you are the man, dude!”. Basically, some cool guy who knows what he is doing and gets the chicks. For instance, Clint Eastwood is definitely a frajer. The title means We are still the cool guys, and the song is about folks who grew up but are still hip.

Elán


Elán was one of the most popular pop groups during the communist times. This song is titled Sestrička z Kramárov. It means “Nurse from Kramáre”, which is a hospital in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. And yes, the song is about a hot nurse, who is the dream of all liars and jerks who promise her the “blue from the sky”: Sestrička z Kramárov, sen všetkých klamárov, ktorí jej sľubujú modré z neba


Well, turns out that Jožo Ráž, the lead singer of Elán, also liked the dancers from the folk group “Lúčnica”, Tanečnice z Lúčnice. This song talks about the time they picked up really pretty and fun hitchhiker chicks (baby, pronounced bahby). Kto mal vediet ze boli z Lúčnice? Teraz už viem prečo každý chce tanečnice z Lúčnice. (Who was to know they were from Lúčnica? Now I know why everyone wants dancers from Lúčnica). Well, he randomly ran into them during his travels. I don’t know much about this folk group, but I guess it also includes some burly guys who roughed him up after he started thinking the girls would look even prettier in a white gown (v bielom závoji). That sound at the end of the song is made by fujara, traditional Slovak shepherd instrument. One of my friends commented that the first time he saw somebody playing it, he though the guy was playing a tree.

Team


This song, titled Reklama na ticho (The advertisement for silence), was a HUGE hit! The lead singer is called Pavel Habera, and my favorite part of this clip is around second 18 when he comes out of that lake like some Loch Ness monster. The chorus is: Môžete ho zohnať len pod rukou (you can buy only under the table) / Nádherné ticho hôr (beautiful silence of mountains) / Výberové ticho so zárukou (exclusive silence with warranty) / Získa ho kto príde skôr (one who comes first will get it).

Tublatanka


Tublatanka was the main main-stream metal band – think Slovak Metallica. I love this band! This particular song, called Pravda Víťazí (meaning The truth prevails), became the anthem of the Velvet Revolution, which ended communism in Czechoslovakia. The little irony here is that, pravda víťazí was the national motto of the communist Czechoslovakia, but of course, this song implies that the communists were the liars. The message here is definitely still valid: pravda víťazí, ak ju sám nezradíš (truth prevails, if you yourself don’t betray it).


Another beautiful song by Tublatanka. This is taken from a concert in Bratislava in 1989, the year of the Velvet revolution. The title of this song is “Dnes“, meaning Today. Martin Ďurinda sings that: Today I have a date with my town, I am not going to bars I am just strolling, I am greeting the neon signs with a familiar gesture, it just struck 10 o’clock (Dnes mám rande so svojím mestom, nejdem do baru len tak chodím, zdravím neóny známym gestom, práve odbilo desať hodín)

I hope you enjoyed this post so far. Read on in Part 2 and then please leave a comment.