1998 - 81st Segment: “Teddy Bear”

Lucie - Medvídek, photo: Czech Television

In this series we present 100 songs which have gone down in the history of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. On Czech Radio’s web pages you can find a poll, in which you can vote for the best hit from the past century. We continue with the year 1998.

On January 20th, President Václav Havel was elected for a second term of office.

On July 9th, the so-called Opposition Agreement between the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) and the Civic Democratic Party was signed.

On July 22nd, the government of Miloš Zeman was appointed.

Many Czechs would say that the biggest success of 1998 was securing the gold medal in hockey at the Olympics in Nagano, Japan. However, we are interested in popular singers and bands.

The sale of music mediums declined that year – forcing the last of the original Czech record companies to look for partnerships abroad.

Lucie - Medvídek,  photo: Czech Television
In 1998 another world musical, “Evita,” premiered in the Czech Republic. There were also many foreign visitors such as Yes, Massive Attack and the duo of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

Filip Renč’s music video, which accompanied the song “Teddy Bear” by the band Lucie, sparked numerous discussions. Many radio music dramaturgs and listeners believed that it was a Christmas song, but in reality it had nothing to do with the holiday. The music was written by Oskar Petr and the lyrics by Robert Kodym and it was the hit of 1998.

Vote for the best song of the century!