Michal David changed his opinion on armament: "The situation is not rosy, it's necessary to start watching defense."

How are you, what are you planning? We see a new album here.

Thank you very much for the invitation. I am mainly preparing the O2 arena, which is now my main program. It will already be on June 13 and 14, so it is really necessary to finish all those things. This O2 arena is a crucial thing for me, it will be very interesting, because the light design is made for me by gentlemen, Italians, who collaborate with Eros Ramazzotti and Andrea Bocelli.

The whole stage will be different, it will be in the middle of the arena and it will be circular, I will have 3D projections in the space there.

It will be very interesting from an audiovisual point of view. There will be a lot of my big hits as well as songs from my new album, which was released fourteen days ago "Life is Ours" and there will be various guests. I just had Arpi here, with whom I have a duet of my old song "Wasted time" in a kind of rap style, so I renew these songs in a slightly different style, to make it interesting for young people too. There is still a lot ahead of me.

You're doing smaller concerts almost without preparation, so aren't you afraid that something will go wrong? 

All concerts that are not in the O2 arena are smaller concerts.

The O2 arena is really specific, you have to prepare, everything is on time code, everything goes to the second, there you really need to have it very well rehearsed. That's why I have three days of rehearsals with the band in May, when we have to practice everything perfectly, there can't be any deviation, otherwise it would all fall apart, both in terms of lighting and sound, everything is programmed in advance. It is somewhat more demanding work, there is less fun and more responsibility, everything has to go well, no mistakes should be made, we need to nail the technical matters, which are very important this time.

You have a new record and you said it is something special, so what is it?

Firstly, it is on vinyl and CD and the cover, which you see, was taken care of by Maxim Havlíček, who is a highly respected author, graphic designer, and painter and he is known in L.A. For example, next year he is preparing a large exhibition with Sharon Stone, with whom he collaborates. He created this design thing for me, it's kind of flashy and nowadays it's more of an artwork, those records.

And they are beginning to sell a lot, because there are a lot of people who have switched to turntables and started buying these vinyls.

So the record is no longer such a hand-held piece, but they can display it at home. "Life is Ours" is my latest album, which I recorded in London with Robbie Williams's band with producer Martin Terefe, who composed the music for me, I wrote the lyrics, Xindl X wrote something for me there. I have a beautiful duet with Olga Lounová. The album took a year to make and I am happy with it.

Pronájem luxusní vily 7+1, Praha - Západ – 373,

Show property

Do you also perform with your grandson, how is it going and how did it come about, what kind of grandfather are you? 

I hope I am a good grandpa, we have a wonderful relationship, Séba is an amazing boy, there are no problems with him. He started playing guitar in such a way that he began to learn from David Csenge, the guitarist of Olga Lounová, three years ago. Now he is at such a level that I take him to the O2 arena, where he will play with us and I select the songs in which he would play. It's great and most importantly, it's good that he got into it, that he is practicing alone at home now and that's important. If you just go to lessons, then you throw away that guitar and go kick the ball, it's fine, but it doesn't have that effect.

He really takes that guitar into his hands every day and plays at least half an hour alone at home and that's great.

How does the cooperation work? Do you take his advice too?

He likes my music, but he's into metal. He likes Metallica, Nirvana, so we don't argue much. When he has to do something with me, he has to play it as it is written there and he learns from that. We do not argue, but rather he asks me how I like what he is doing now and if it has a future.

Do you sing the song "Kde si včera bol" at your concerts, did you participate in this song?

It's a folk song and no one knows who wrote it. Two little Roma men, who call themselves Romstar Vyškov, made it really famous and I liked it very much and I included this song as a bonus with them, as a duet, on my album, which was called "Funky", and which was released in 2020, I believe. The collaboration on this song is great, and I even like to bring it out as an encore at my one man shows, because it has a big impact. And when I'm in Slovakia, for example, I have a song made in a similar spirit called "Načo pôjdem domov". It's good when I go to Slovakia, for instance, to include some Slovak song.

Are you helping young talents, do you currently have someone you're helping to get ahead?

Arpi was here recently, with him I have the first song and now we are working on the second one. But it has to make sense, when I work with someone, I need it to be of quality, to be good. I get a lot of different offers, samples, which are not good 90% of the time, unfortunately, I fortunately take care of that. But some things succeed and have the quality and it's because they are different, they are made differently, maybe it's into rap, it has different harmonies and I don't mind, but it has to be professionally and well made. 

What exactly does a person need for Michal David to help them?

They need to have a good sound, they need to have a good arrangement, I must find the rapper sympathetic in both character and humanity, it is important to me that we click. There are more aspects to it. They need to have, as I call them, five P's.

I'm interested in the topic of clothing. Do you have your own stylist or do you dress yourself for events?

I seek advice here and there, but mostly I choose the clothes myself.

Even though the fashion police sometimes catches up to me, but I don't mind, I'm a showman and I take it as part of the job.

When you look at Elton John, he also had extravagant things. So sometimes they criticize me for it here as well, but it's okay. But sometimes I consult with Filip Vaňek or Martin Gruntorád, these are the stylists I turn to. If I need advice, I take photos or videos for them, send it and they advise me.

Do you like extravagance, but is there something you would not wear?

Probably women's dresses. Some of us like it, but I don't.

The current topic is security in the Czech Republic. How do you feel safe here, and what do you think about increasing defense costs?

Given that I live here, I must have some opinion.

I am interested in what our children and grandchildren are born into and it is important to me that my grandson is safe in the republic.

It is clear that I care about it. As the situation changes over time, so do my opinions. I was against it, let's say two, three years ago, that we are helping with weapons, but today the situation is different and we need to guard this defense here. The situation is not completely rosy and it needs to be secured. It is true, we must confirm and we must address this issue.

This is also related to the re-election of Donald Trump. What do you think about this?

Well, he's a chauvinist, he only cares about his American interests, so he doesn't care about Europe. Even though he claims that he wants to help, with regards to Ukraine and Russia. I have somewhat contradictory views on him.

In some things, I support him, in others, I think he goes too far.

It's tough. I'm not a politician, I'm just a regular citizen and I'm interested in this, but I can't decide, and secondly, I can express my opinion at most.

Do you go to the polls?

Of course.

What do you think of today's government, where we see quarrels daily?

I am personally not satisfied with the government and I think it is a very bad government. It's my opinion and you don't have to agree with me. What's happening now is not entirely good for us, the citizens of the Czech Republic, and many things that the prime minister promised were not fulfilled. Starting with taxes, where he claimed they would not increase and two months later he raised them. And other things that are happening.

We'll see what's next, but I can't say I'm absolutely thrilled with our government. 

Prodej luxusního mezonetu 4+kk, Praha, Praha 8

Show property

Do you collaborate with foreign musicians, how does such collaboration arise? 

When I want to do something with someone more famous in the world, I have to approach them. The collaboration in London was super for me. I met some interesting people there, like James Blunt, Robbie Williams, Adele, but even the musicians are great, it was an amazing collaboration. What's amazing there is that they don't deal with any politics. They just do their job, which is music and I like that. We are musicians and our job is to entertain people. 

Your song "Pár přátel stačí mít" became an anthem for an organization abroad. It is a message to your daughter. Was it created for this purpose?

I had it in my mind for years. Our Miška sadly succumbed to leukemia in 2000 and since then I have felt compelled to leave a legacy in her memory, something of value. Coincidentally, I met a woman two years ago, who is the founder of a charity fund, that helps people with cancer and its prevention, in Washington and America. We were talking. They celebrated their 40th anniversary this year, and I asked her if they already have some sort of anthem, she said they didn't. I started to play her my songs, and during the song "Pár přátel stačí mít" she interrupted and said: "This is exactly what I want", and we started working on translating the song into English, it was retexted by the famous Charlie Midnight, who writes for Cher, Barbara Strassen, Joe Cocker.

When I sang it, I was thinking that it was not enough, that it needed more singers to truly become a world anthem.

We started calling world performers with Ladislav Vajdíček. In the end, we managed to have Lara Fabian there, we have Richard Marx there, we have Il Divo, a vocal quartet, Kimbra. Wonderful singers, which I didn't even expect that we would be able to have. The song was really recorded, a music video was created in London. And today, after two weeks, it has over three million views on YouTube and I am glad that it was really successful, the message of Miška is starting to make sense.

Did you expect such success?

I wished for it, but I never dared to hope for such success. It is the "American dream."

Is there someone you wanted to have a song with, but it didn't work out yet?

I have always had a dream to sing a song with Elton John, but that probably won't happen. He's quite ill and even has problems with his eyes now. But at least I was lucky to meet him in person.

How do you see talent competitions? Do starting singers have it harder?

I think it's the same as before. We used to organize festivals where we presented ourselves to increase our visibility. Today, it's various SuperStars, X Factors, Voices of Czechoslovakia. It's good for new talents, the question is how it continues after the competition ends. 90% of them then become no names and it's a question of who will take it in hand, what kind of producer. And how the performer will benefit from it. Usually, it ends with the competition and the performer ends as well. I believe there's so much of it now, it's starting to decline.

Why is it that people can't make it after the competition?

It's because they don't have enough of their own original work, they can't make a good song that would launch them, so they could do their own concerts.

One thing is to sing and cover famous hits, but another thing is to have your own repertoire and that's the alpha and omega.

These people suddenly have to sing something of their own and they're derailed by it. They don't know how to approach it. When they copy, say, Adele or another singer they do it well, but when they have to be themselves, they don't know what to do. I think that's the main reason. And that they don't have their own hits.

Would you recommend beginners to have their own songs then?

Firstly, they need to have talent. I think they should be musically equipped. Doing their own things and they need to look good. They need to have the right team behind them, their own producer, have the money to shoot clips, put money into advertising. It's not simple at all, not today, not back then.

Back then we had to be capable of something, today you see a lot of people who come to the casting "eager to sing", who think they can sing and it's a tragedy.

They may lack personality, identity.

Source: author's article, own querying