Czech President Petr Pavel will give state honors to singer Ida Kelarová, the first Romani woman in history to receive them

News server Lidovky.cz reports that dozens of people will be given honors during this year’s ceremony. Kelarová, a Romani musician, music teacher and singer, who was nominated by the Central Bohemian Regional Romani Coordinator, Cyril Koky, will be given the Medal of Merit.

“It is my great joy to confirm that Ida Kelarová will receive these honors and will become the first Romani woman to receive them in history. Ida Kelarová is a significant Romani figure and this honor is an award for, and the culmination of, the many years of work she has performed,” Koky told news server Romea.cz.

Kelarová established the International School for the Human Voice, organizes workshops, multiethnic projects, the Romani festival called “Gypsy Celebration Hartmanice”, and has established ensembles performing the Romani song repertoire. In 1999, she and Desider Dužda established the group called Romano Rat (Romani Blood), with which she performs in concert worldwide.

In 2001, she was nominated for a Czech Lion award for the music she composed for the film “Zpráva o putování studentů Petra a Jakuba” [The Pilgrimage of Students Peter and Jacob]. She is a proud Romani woman who has long dedicated herself to educating and raising Romani children and to opening up a path to Romani culture for non-Romani people.

Last year, when Miloš Zeman was still president, Kelarová refused to be nominated for any state honors. “Zeman, through his words and deeds, basically is against what I have been trying my best to achieve here in the Czech Republic for the last 25 years, which is that people should be able to show each other respect, to be able to pay tribute to each other. Naturally, his remarks about Romani people have been shameful too, but I essentially cannot identify with his attitudes or opinions about anything,” Kelarová told news server Romea.cz at the time.

Three Romani men have been given Czech state honors in the past. In 2022, Josef Serinek, a Czechoslovak member of the anti-Nazi resistance, received the Medal for Heroism in memoriam from President Zeman.

In 2006, the Medal of Merit was given to the Romani activist Milan Horvát by President Klaus. In 2002, President Havel gave the Medal of Merit to the political commentator Karel Holomek, who passed away earlier this year.

The ceremony is expected to be attended by 700 guests in the Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle, and roughly 2,000 will attend the reception in the Spanish Hall afterward. Petr Pavel became the country’s fourth president of the post-1989 democratic era this March (after Havel, Klaus and Zeman) and is awarding state honors for the first time.

Pavel received hundreds of nominations for honors to be awarded to many figures. Prague Castle does not publicize ahead of time how many will receive the honors or who has been chosen.