Patti Smith To Perform On Behalf Of Bob Dylan At Nobel Prize Ceremony

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Mon Dec 5, 2016 03:37PM

Patti Smith will perform on behalf of Bob Dylan at the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm on Saturday (10Dec16).

Dylan became the first songwriter to be awarded the literature prize in October (16), with the Swedish Academy praising him for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

However, it took five days for the 75-year-old to acknowledge the achievement, and he soon wrote to the Swedish Academy to tell them he would not attend the prize giving.

Now it has been revealed that singer-songwriter Patti will perform Dylan´s track A Hard Rain´s A-Gonna Fall at the ceremony, while a speech provided by Dylan will be read out - although not by him.

A speech is required from the Nobel laureate, and must be "on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded”.

Once Dylan had announced he would not be attending the ceremony, officials at the Academy said in a statement: "The prize still belongs to them, just as it belongs to Bob Dylan. We look forward to Bob Dylan´s Nobel lecture, which he must give - it is the only requirement - within six months counting from December 10, 2016."

It remains unclear whether the speech written by Dylan and delivered by someone else will fulfill this requirement.

Dylan´s decision not to attend the ceremony comes after he also missed a celebration at the White House hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in honor of his achievement.

Every year the U.S. President invites Americans who have won the prestigious award to his residence to congratulate them.

While physics prize winners Duncan Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz, economic sciences honoree Oliver Hart, and chemistry laureate J. Fraser Stoddart, all met the U.S. leader at the event last month (Nov16), Dylan was notably absent.