Patti Smith Awarded 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts
Patti Smith, American singer, poet, writer and visual artist, has been named the recipient of the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts. The jury’s decision was announced on April 29 in Oviedo, where Smith was selected from 55 nominations representing 30 nationalities. The award ceremony is scheduled for October 23, 2026, in Oviedo.
The jury cited her work for connecting rock, symbolist poetry and the spirit of the counterculture with remarkable expressive force. Across more than fifty years, the woman widely referred to as the “godmother of punk” has made rebellion a form of art with enduring cultural weight — songs like “Because the Night”, co-written with Bruce Springsteen, and “People Have the Power” have become part of the global cultural canon. Rooted in the influences of Rimbaud, Bob Dylan and Federico García Lorca, Smith forged a creative language in which music and literature are inseparable.
Her contribution extends well beyond music. She is the author of around ten books, including Just Kids, which won the National Book Award, and has pursued a parallel career in visual art. Previous recipients of the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts include Meryl Streep, Joan Manuel Serrat and Marina Abramović.
