Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

BOB DYLAN

Silent Bob: Swedish Nobel crew can’t find Dylan

The Swedish Academy says it has given up trying to reach Bob Dylan, days after it awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Published: 17 October 2016 16:18 CEST
Silent Bob: Swedish Nobel crew can't find Dylan
Bob Dylan on stage in Carhaix, France, in 2012. Photo: David Vincent/AP

“Right now we are doing nothing. I have called and sent emails to his closest collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is
certainly enough,” the academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius, told state radio SR on Monday.

So far the American troubadour has responded with silence since he won the prize on Thursday.

He gave a concert in Las Vegas that very night, but made no mention of the accolade.

So — as an early Dylan song may have put it — how does it feel?

“I am not at all worried,” said Danius. “I think he will show up.”

Every December 10th, Nobel prize winners are invited to Stockholm to receive their awards from King Carl XVI Gustaf and to give a speech during a banquet.

The Swedish Academy still does not know if Dylan plans to come to the event.

“If he doesn't want to come, he won't come. It will be a big party in any case and the honour belongs to him,” said Danius.

Dylan, 75, whose lyrics have influenced generations of fans, is the first songwriter to win the literature prize.

Other contenders for this year's prize included Salman Rushdie, Adonis and Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

BOB DYLAN

Bob Dylan to play at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival

One of the all-time greats of rock ‘n’ roll will play at Denmark’s largest music festival this summer.

Published: 28 February 2019 13:02 CET
Bob Dylan to play at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival
Bob Dylan in 2012. Photo: FRED TANNEAU/Ritzau Scanpix

A new generation of fans will therefore be able to experience the Nobel Prize-winning songwriter, who also played at Roskilde on several occasions during the 1990s and 2000s.

Dylan, known for songs including Like a Rolling Stone, The Times They Are A-Changin’, Boots of Spanish Leather, Blowin’ in the Wind, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall and Subterranean Homesick Blues as well as countless others, will play the Danish festival’s main Orange Stage on July 3rd, Roskilde Festival confirmed.

“It’s now been 13 years since he last visited us, so for many of our young participants this could be the first and maybe only time they will have the chance to see an artist of such importance,” programme director Anders Wahrén told DR.

In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”, although it took him a while to officially accept the prize.

He has also won 10 Grammy Awards, one Golden Globe and one Academy Award.

Born in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, Dylan emerged during the 1960s, with his distinctive vocal phrasing and guitar and harmonica-based music.

“Bob Dylan’s cultural impact can almost not be overstated, even if you don’t also consider his personal, literary or political awareness and engagement,” Wahrén added.

The rock ‘n’ roll icon will be 78 years old when he steps on to the Roskilde stage this summer.

Other acts so far announced for this year’s festival, which is the largest of its kind in northern Europe, include The Cure, Cardi B, Robyn, Travis Scott, Christine and the Queens, Robert Plant and Tears for Fears.

READ ALSO: Roskilde 'is not just stages, but also the space between'

SHOW COMMENTS