Karel Gott, a romantic Czech crooner whose popularity behind the Iron Curtain helped earn him the nickname “Sinatra of the East,” died on Tuesday at his home in Prague. He was 80.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Ivana Gottova , on his website. Last month he wrote on Facebook that he had received a diagnosis of acute leukemia.

“Extremely sad news for our whole country,” Milos Zeman, president of the Czech Republic, said in a statement. “Karel Gott was a real artist who gave himself to others.”

A dapper and expressive tenor who sang in Czech, English, Russian, French and German, Mr. Gott recorded hundreds of albums and performed before audiences in his home country; in Poland, Austria, Hungary, Romania and West Germany ; and in the United States and Canada.