"It is better not to play at all than to play music that is not based on the musician's own convictions. It's better not to play at all than to play what the establishment wants.“ These words were pronounced in 1975 by the philosopher and key personality of the Czech underground scene Ivan Martin Jirous. 14 years later happened something what only a few would expect, but what a majority hoped for - the Velvet revolution and the end of totalitarian system in Czechoslovakia. Today, we are celebrating its 35th anniversary. On that occasion, we prepared a list of Slovak songs mostly from the 80s that were openly criticising the system and later became symbols of the Velvet revolution.
17 November Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
When on 10 June 1989 Joan Baez smuggled Václav Havel as a guitar carrier to Bratislavská Lýra festival and invited Ivan Hoffman to the podium, it was one of the many beginnings of the end of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. Hoffman, however, couldn’t finish his song Nech mi nehovoria because the organisers of the normalisation festival switched off his microphones to the stormy disapproval of the audience. Today it is the 35th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and yes, we still do have the freedom of speech in Slovakia. I just hope our microphones will never be switched off again.
