From Memento’s anti-drug warning to viral politics: Jana Hrušková’s second life
The singer who once stood beside Petr Novák on stage to warn Czechoslovakia about pervitin addiction ended her career trajectory as a social-media provocateur who called every Muslim a potential terrorist and ran for president, Médium.cz reported. Jana Hrušková, the younger sister of television presenter Eva Hrušková, has spent the past decade building an online following on Facebook and TikTok through aggressive monologues, vulgar songs and appearances on reality television.
The contrast is stark. In the late 1980s, Hrušková was one of the country’s leading vocalists, performing in the stage project Memento, which confronted the drug taboo of the communist era. Today she is known for anti-Islam and anti-EU videos and for a 2018 presidential candidacy that collapsed for lack of signatures.
A voice that reached the top of Czech pop in the 1980s
Hrušková grew up in Hradec Králové and began her musical path in the East Bohemian rock band Genese. In 1981 and 1982 she stood out at the Prague Vokalízy organized by Jana Koubková, and in 1982 she won the Czechoslovak Television competition Dluhy Hany Zagorové. She also recorded and performed with the jazz quartet Jazz Fragment Praha.
The turning point in her early career came when music manager Vladimír Mertlík connected her with Czech rock legend Petr Novák.
Naprosto mentálně vyšinutá a labilní Jana Yngland Hrušková. pic.twitter.com/QN8kwvIduI
Memento made her Petr Novák’s partner against the drug taboo
The second half of the 1980s brought Hrušková to the peak of her artistic career through Memento, a music-dramatic show inspired by Radek John’s novel of the same name, with lyrics by Michael Žantovský. At a time when the communist regime swept the issue of drug addiction under the carpet and official propaganda portrayed drugs as a Western vice, the show was an unusually bold act. It depicted domestic pervitin production and the hopeless spiral of self-destruction.
Hrušková became Novák’s key vocal partner, and her dynamic delivery gave a striking feminine contrast to his weary voice in urgent songs such as Co budem dělat? and Zpackaná láska. Alongside the engaged tour with the band George & Beatovens, she recorded songs with Lešek Semelka and a period duet, Diskotango, with opera singer Miroslav Pulec. Just before the Velvet Revolution, however, she decided to leave the stage.
Marriage to a Norwegian journalist took her to Scandinavia in 1989
In 1989 she married Norwegian journalist Dag Harald Yngland and moved to Scandinavia, in her own words burying overnight everything she had achieved in Prague. After two years in Norway she followed her husband to Berlin, where she continued music only in reduced form: private singing lessons, writing German lyrics for colleagues and occasional local singles.
She returned to Česká Skalice in 2013 and joined a puppet theater
Hrušková returned permanently to the Czech Republic in 2013, after more than two decades. Besides homesickness, she cited her aversion to the shared European currency, saying the exchange of the Deutsche Mark for the euro felt like a fraud that cost her standard of living. She settled in a house in Česká Skalice near Babiččino údolí, kept poultry and tried to revive her artistic career.
Her sister Eva and Eva’s husband Jan Přeučil helped her by engaging her in their touring puppet theater for children. Jana Yngland Hrušková performed fairy tales, appeared for seniors in spa houses and occasionally performed alongside Vlastimil Harapes.
The 2015 refugee crisis turned her into a political activist
The refugee crisis around 2015 launched a previously unseen radical political activism. The children’s fairy-tale singer swapped puppets for a webcam and began posting fiery calls against Islam, the European Union and so-called “sluníčkáři.” She entered television history with an outburst on the talk show Máte slovo, where she dismissed a young opponent with a sneer about a “ňuňuňu chlapeček” and backed her claims with “normal sources from acquaintances in Germany.”
In an interview on DVTV with Martin Veselovský, she called every Muslim a potential terrorist and described the war in Syria as an invented fiction, earning first place in Demagog.cz’s contest for the densest use of argumentative fallacies in a single appearance.
A presidential run in 2018 ended without enough signatures
The crown of her campaign was the announcement of her candidacy for president in the 2018 election. Her transparent account filled with penny donations and mocking messages, and the public viewed her program of abolishing human-rights nonprofits mostly as a farce. In the family, horror prevailed: sister Eva called Jana’s ambitions a sign of madness and pointed out that organizers were canceling their joint children’s performances because of Jana’s extremism. Hrušková quietly withdrew from the presidential race for lack of signatures, but she did not leave the virtual arena.
Television appearances cemented her as a viral figure
In the following years she fully adapted to the logic of social networks, where algorithms reward aggression and vulgarity rather than substance. Her monologues on Facebook and TikTok brought her an audience entertained by her unpredictability. She confirmed her bizarre status on television as well: on the cooking show Prostřeno! she served guests tough rooster from a roasting pan, and on the reality show Like House 2 she launched vulgar insults while drunk. The spiral culminated in vulgar songs in which she demeaned actresses Eliška Balzerová and Bára Štěpánová for supporting President Petr Pavel, prompting actor Hynk Čermák to make a joking remark about immediately granting her official artist status.
Identifying Jana Hrušková’s siblings and artistic roots
Who is Jana Hrušková’s famous sister?
Her older sister is Eva Hrušková, known from the black-and-white television program Popelky. Eva and her husband Jan Přeučil later employed Jana in their children’s puppet theater after her return to the Czech Republic.
What was the Memento project about?
Memento was a music-dramatic stage show based on Radek John’s novel, with lyrics by Michael Žantovský, that openly addressed pervitin production and drug addiction in Czechoslovakia at a time when the communist regime treated the topic as taboo.
Why did she leave Czechoslovakia in 1989?
In 1989 she married Norwegian journalist Dag Harald Yngland and moved to Norway, then to Berlin after two years, abandoning her Czech career just before the Velvet Revolution.
Did her 2018 presidential candidacy succeed?
No. She announced her run for the 2018 presidential election but withdrew quietly because she did not collect enough signatures.
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