Bob Dylan Nobel Prize Banquet Speech; Patti Smith's "Hard Rain".

Prize motivation: "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"

Nobel Diploma

Nobel Prize Speech (nobelprize.org)

"If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I'd have about the same odds as standing on the moon. In fact, during the year I was born and for a few years after, there wasn't anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So, I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least".

From The Guardian

Amanda Petrusich in The New Yorker - "Has Dylan conferred great benefit to mankind? Listening to Smith sing his song—and watching as audience members, dressed in their finest, wiped their eyes, blindly reached for each other, seemed unable to exhale—the answer felt obvious. The answer was on their faces".

Patti Smith blanks out during Nobel Prize performance, The Telegraph

After a nervous start, Patti Smith gave a deeply-felt and moving performance of "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall".

Full version

Patti Smith, How does it feel, The New Yorker

Svenska Dagbladet (article in Swedish) - Bob Dylans ord tystade Blå Hallen :

”Om någon hade sagt till mig att jag hade minsta chans att vinna Nobelpriset så skulle jag tänkt att oddsen var ungefär desamma som att jag skulle ta mig till månen”