The Valentines (CZ)

Love, pink color and guitars: The Valentines are a pop band hailing from Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. Formed in 2017, the band consists of Honza Doležal – bass guitar / vocals, Ondřej Čepek – guitar / synth and Matěj Novotný – drums.

The young three-piece oscillates between David Bowie’s 80’s Let’s Dance aesthetics and contemporary guitar-driven pop, writing, as they put it, “happy songs about sad things”.

In 2019, The Valentines won Radio Wave’s Starter (song contest), getting an opportunity to record and make the music video for "Did My Back Hurt Your Knife?”. Furthermore, the following single "Just Us" appeared as the only song in the film A Certain Kind of Silence nominated for the Czech Lion (Czech film awards).

Fast forward to 2021, The Valentines reached the Czech national final round of the Eurovision Song Contest with “Stay or Go”, a song recorded in a bedroom and produced (just as the previous singles) by frontman Honza Doležal and Filip Vlček, who also mixed it. “Stay or Go” was mastered by Ted Jensen, with Madonna, Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, Bring Me the Horizon and many other albums under his belt.

In 2022, The Valentines played the second biggest stage of Rock for People festival and are currently working on new singles and a debut album.

Milestones:

• 2017 – The Valentines were founded
• 2019 – Victory in a competition Startér of Radio Wave
• 2019 – EP 4 Old Songs (We Didn’t Even Want to Share With You)
• 2021 – Czech final of the Eurovision Song Contest
• 2022 – Performance at the Rock for People festival