Bob Dylan to Formally Accept Nobel Prize This Weekend
UPDATE 2: Bob Dylan has submitted his Nobel Prize speech to the Swedish Academy and will now receive the Nobel’s $900,000 prize, according to AFP.
UPDATE: Bob Dylan received his Nobel Prize in Literature medal and diploma Saturday during a private ceremony in Stockholm in a “small and intimate setting,” per the singer’s request. “It happened in great secrecy,” Swedish Academy members told Swedish press, Reuters reports. In order for Dylan to collect the Nobel’s $900,000 prize, however, he must still deliver his lecture within six months of December’s ceremony.
Bob Dylan will formally receive his Nobel Prize in Literature this weekend in Stockholm, Sweden.
“The Swedish Academy is very much looking forward to the weekend and will show up at one of the performances,” Nobel spokesperson Sara Danius wrote in a statement Wednesday.
“The good news is that the Swedish Academy and Bob Dylan have decided to meet this weekend. The Academy will then hand over Dylan’s Nobel diploma and the Nobel medal, and congratulate him on the Nobel Prize in Literature. The setting will be small and intimate, and no media will be present; only Bob Dylan and members of the Academy will attend, all according to Dylan’s wishes.”
However, while each Nobel honoree is required to deliver a lecture on their field of expertise – those lectures usually take place the week of the Nobel ceremony in December, but must be given within six months of the honor – Dylan will not hold his lecture this weekend. Instead, he’ll provide a taped version “at a later point,” which is allowed under Nobel rules.
After Dylan initially declined to acknowledge his unexpected Nobel Prize win in October – one Swedish Academy member wrote the singer was acting “impolite and arrogant” – he eventually said of the honor, “Amazing, incredible. Who dreams about something like that.”
Dylan eventually connected in writing with the Swedish Academy and although he couldn’t attend due to scheduling reasons, he provided them an acceptance speech that was read at the December gala by United States Ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji. Patti Smith also performed a tribute to Dylan at the ceremony.
“But there’s one thing I must say. As a performer I’ve played for 50,000 people and I’ve played for 50 people and I can tell you that it is harder to play for 50 people. 50,000 people have a singular persona, not so with 50,” Dylan wrote. “Each person has an individual, separate identity, a world unto themselves. They can perceive things more clearly. Your honesty and how it relates to the depth of your talent is tried. The fact that the Nobel committee is so small is not lost on me.”
Bob Dylan awarded Nobel Prize in literature.