Rock Legend JANOS KOBOR - Singer of OMEGA Dies of Covid

07 December 2021

János Kóbor, legendary singer of Hungarian rock band OMEGA, died at the age of 79 on Monday. The musician spent several weeks in hospital with a covid infection, and his condition was long considered serious.

Kóbor was not only known in Hungary, but also throughout Europe: one of the band’s songs, “Gyöngyhajú lány” (Pearls in her Hair), was very popular in many countries, including West Germany, Great Britain, France, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria.

Kóbor's family had practically ordered a news blackout, but band members repeatedly asked fans to pray for the musician. Previously, Kóbor had stated in an interview that he had not been vaccinated against any disease and he did not want to receive vaccination against the coronavirus either.

Kóbor was born in Budapest in 1943. He founded his first music band in grammar school and after other smaller formations, several students from two schools founded the rock band OMEGA in 1960.

SCORPIONS later covered “Gyöngyhajú lány” under the title “White Dove.” They released it as a single album in 1994 and was a top 20 hit in Germany and Switzerland.

Kóbor also became well-known because his band gave an extremely successful concert in Budapest’s Heroes’ Square in 2014 on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the political regime change in Hungary, at which SCORPIONS also performed. OMEGA star Kóbor sang the song “Wind of Change” together with Klaus Meine.

The band’s last album, Testament, was released in 2020.

Besides his family and the band, he had a third love: Lake Balaton. In one of his last interviews, he said that he wanted his ashes to be scattered in the waters of his beloved lake after his death.