Going back to the Austrian guy...
In October 2015, Gott was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph nodes. On 18 March 2016, it was reported in the media that he had beaten cancer, but in September 2019, he developed acute leukemia, due to which he cancelled all upcoming appearances and started outpatient treatment. He died at around 11:30pm on 1 October 2019 at his home in Bertramka, aged 80, with his family around him,
[2] and his death was reported the following morning.
All major television stations in the Czech Republic featured breaking news announcements and commemorative programs in their schedules, and Czech Radio and Radio Impuls also adapted their scheduled broadcasts. At an extraordinary meeting on 2 October, the government approved a state funeral and declared the day of the funeral a national day of mourning. A day later,
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš withdrew the proposal for a state funeral, saying that it should only be a funeral with state honours, as in the case of
Otakar Motejl in 2010. At the presidential chateau in Lány, the Presidential flags were flown at half-mast as a sign of mourning, but according to the former proto-logger Jindřich Forejt, this violated the law on the use of state symbols of the Czech Republic.
A public commemorative ceremony was held at 8am on Friday, 11 October 2019, in Prague's
Žofín Palace. Gott's fans travelled from around the Czech Republic and Germany and waited for several hours in a five-kilometer queue to the palace. The ceremony ended at midnight, by which time around 49,000 mourners had paid respects at his coffin. The funeral mass with state honours was held at
Saint Vitus Cathedral on Saturday, 12 October, presided over by the
Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal
Dominik Duka. A day of national mourning was declared on the same day. The requiem guests included many famous Czech singers, actors, and sportsmen, as well as
President Miloš Zeman and Prime Minister Babiš.