Legendary musician and songwriter János Kóbor has passed away at the age of 78, following a short battle with covid.
János Kóbor was Hungary’s equivalent of Mick Jagger.
The Hungarian rock band Omega is one of the few that cold become well-known in other parts of the world as well, a huge feat if you consider that they could even conquer Western Europe during Hungary’s communist/socialist era that ended in 1989.
Grief swept across the country as the news broke on the 6th of December, that the front man and singer of Omega, legendary musician and songwriter János Kóbor has passed away at the age of 78, following a short battle with covid.
Although Kóbor – born on the 17th of May 1943 – started playing music in high school, in a band called Ciklon, his musical career became synonymous with Omega, one of Hungary’s most iconic bands ever. Omega first performed on the 23rd of September 1962, in one of the dormitories of the Budapest Technical University (BME).
Omega piled up a number of achievements during their decades of activity. They were the first beat band to publish an album in 1968, they were the first Hungarian rock band to visit the West, and to date they have the most records sold in Hungary (1979’s Gammapolis, that sold 650 thousand copies) as well as the most records by a Hungarian band sold abroad (1977’s Time Robber, with over 1 million copies sold).
Though it’s less known outside of Hungary, but Omega inspired an international act as well: the 1994 hit single White Dove by German rock legends Scorpions covered Omega’s iconic Gyöngyhajú lány (Girl with the pearl hair). The two bands had a friendly relationship, with Kóbor and Scorpions Singer Klaus Meine singing Wind of Change together in Budapest’s landmark Heroes’ Square in 2014, to mark the 25th anniversary of Hungarian democracy.
