Patti Smith, Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts

BarcelonaPatti Smith (Chicago, 1946), the American singer with an extraordinary musical career of more than five decades, also known for her literary work and political activism, has won the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, which is awarded by the Princess of Asturias Foundation and is endowed with 50,000 euros. In the arts category, the award recognizes "the work of creation, cultivation, and perfection of architecture, cinematography, dance, sculpture, photography, music, painting, theater, and other artistic manifestations." In previous editions, the award went to artists such as Joan Manuel Serrat (2024), Meryl Streep (2023), Marina Abramovich (2021), Martin Scorsese (2018), Francis Ford Coppola (2015), Richard Serra (2010), or Bob Dylan (2007).

Smith is one of the most important singers in the history of rock, where she has left her visceral and poetic mark since her extraordinary debut album, Horses, in 1975. The first verses of that album ("Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine", from her incendiary version of "Gloria") already made clear Smith's defiant and free spirit, which brought to popular music the rage of New York punk combined with unusual literary sophistication. During the 70s, she developed a career that redefined the role of women in the context of rock. Among her most recognized songs is the version of Bruce Springsteen's "Because the night", which she popularized, but also "People have the power" included on the 1988 album "Dream of life".

Having retired from the stage since the early 80s, the death of her husband Fred Sonic Smith and her brother prompted her to resume touring in the mid-90s. Smith, in fact, was one of the big winners of the first edition of the Doctor Music Festival held in Escalarre in 1996. In 2010, she won the National Book Award of the United States for her memoir, "Just Kids". Smith has often visited Catalan stages; her first visit was in 1976 at the Joventut pavilion in Badalona, and the last was .