The American singer and poet Patti Smith, on the verge of turning 80, closed the 2026 Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony on Friday, October 23, with an a cappella version of her song 'Wing'. The event was held at the Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, Spain, as reported by El Universal. Before singing, the so-called godmother of punk received the Arts award from Princess Leonor de Borbón.
The 46th edition of the prize brought together eight laureates from different fields, among them the footballer Lionel Messi (Sports), the British writer Julian Barnes (Literature) and the Japanese studio Studio Ghibli (Communication and Humanities). El País describes the ceremony as a meeting point between music, sport, literature and animated film. For the Mexican public, the list includes names with their own readers and fans: Barnes and Smith have work published in Spanish, and Messi was greeted with football references during the speeches.
In her speech, Smith said the award is an incentive "to keep working and evolving" and to find "new ways to give hope and stability to the new generations". She also recalled that authors such as Picasso and García Lorca inspired part of her work, and thanked the opportunity to speak with young people in Spain. For his part, the historian Timothy Garton Ash devoted the morning to Europe and freedom, and in a humorous tone proposed a third principle he called tiquitaca, with a nod to Messi: "The lesson football offers Europe is that success requires both individual genius and sophisticated teamwork". Barnes, in turn, questioned the idea of progress in the arts and cited Don Quixote as an example of a work that already anticipated everything.
The ceremony featured a parade of 860 bagpipers along Calle Uría and the presence of the Spanish Royal Family. The Arts award has previously gone to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Next week, the Princess of Asturias Foundation will publish the jury minutes and the full speeches of the eight laureates on its official website.
This article was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.
