The singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat received this Friday the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts 2024. At the ceremony, he claimed the freedom, justice and democracy as “values that go together or don’t go together.” He also expressed his discontent with a “hostile, contaminated and unsupportive world” in which, according to him, the democratic values and morals have been replaced by “the greed of the market, where everything has a price.”
Serratwho has defined himself as an “old man on the verge of an old man” who during the eventful path of life found reasons to move forward and who “with the impulse of dreams” has arrived here, made this reflection during the Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony which was held this Friday at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo.
In the presence of the kings and their daughters, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía, the author of Mediterranean has recognized that he is a person “who feels loved and respected“he who likes his job: sing and write songsbut he is also a “man in favor of life” who prefers “roads to borders, reason to force and instinct to civility.”
“I am a social and rational animal that needs man beyond the tribe,” he stated before declaring himself in favor of tolerance, respect for the rights of others and dialogue to resolve issues fairly and showing his rejection of “atrocities without unanimous and forceful responses”.
At 80 years old, with more than 500 songs and 40 albums in towhas acknowledged that he is not satisfied either “when he sees the dreams stranded on the other bank of the river” and that he reluctantly asks himself, when he sees his friends leave without harvesting, “when will the time come to harvest the dreams?”
After stating that he wants “leave the memory of a good, fair and grateful man”, Serrat has indicated that he does not expect to have reached today to show gratitude and affection to those who have given him friendship, company and advice, but that, just in case, he does want to thank his teachers, colleagues and friends, the woman with whom he has shared his life, his parents, children and grandchildren.
“Thank you to those who for almost 60 years have made my songs their own and to all those who from the four cardinal points are happy with me to see my name attached to the rotunda list of winners of this award“concluded an artist who, as recognized by the jury that awarded him the award, has combined the art of poetry and music “at the service of tolerance and shared values.”
Serrat, who He left the stage two years agoconcluded his speech by performing, accompanied by a violin, one of his most recognized songs, little things.
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