Paco de Lucía Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts 2004

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2004 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, made up of D. José Luis Álvarez, D. Fernando Argenta, D.ª Inés Argüelles, D. Juan Cruz, D. Fernando Delgado, D. Jorge Fernández Bustillo, D. Álvaro Fernández-Villaverde y de Silva, D. José Luis Garci, D. Guillermo García-Alcalde, D.ª Rosina Gómez-Baeza, D. Juan Carlos Laviana, D. Carlos Madera, D. Manuel Martín Ferrand, D.ª Beatriz Pecker, D. Benigno Pendás García, D. Juan Ramón Pérez Las Clotas, D. Emilio Sagi, D. Rodrigo Uría Meruéndano, D.ª Amelia Valcárcel, D. José Velasco, D. Miguel Zugaza Miranda, chaired by D. José Lladó Fernández-Urrutia with D. José Antonio Caicoya as secretary, has decided to bestow the 2004 Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts on Francisco Sánchez Gómez, better known under his artistic pseudonym of Paco de Lucía. This Algeciras-born artist from the province of Cádiz has transcended frontiers and styles to become a musician of universal proportions. Using the flamenco guitar as his starting point, he has incorporated the Spanish classical repertoire - from Albéniz to Falla - the emotion of the bossa nova and the soul of jazz. The whole gamut of what can possibly be expressed with six guitar strings emanates from his hands as they come alive in response to the heart-stirring, profound sensitivity and the unsullied sonorous clarity and precision that are born of the greatest and purest of performing skills.

Oviedo, 14 July 2004