Les Luthiers 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities

Message from Les Luthiers on being granted the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! This Award is one of the few things in our history, we can now unashamedly confess, that we dreamed of winning.

Our achievements unintentionally came about one after another. Almost without realizing it, what started out as a fun university choir group moved on to concerts in cafés in the sixties, to the Instituto di Tella, to theatres with seating for 1,000, 2,000 or 3,200, like our present Gran Rex, and, eventually, to our tours of Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, among other Spanish-speaking countries.

Our sole aspiration in fifty years has been to do a good job, learn, improve and perform this blessed job of juggling music, words and ideas nobly in order to make audiences laugh out loud. Luckily, we always achieved our goals without having specifically dreamed of them. Well, almost always... we did dream of the Princess of Asturias Award!

Thank you for this prestigious award, so highly renowned worldwide. Thank you to the Jury, which has singled us out from among worthy nominees with such careers behind them, and to those who put forward our candidature.

We have been conferred such a great honour! We are so proud to join this esteemed group of fellow countrymen who have received the Award before us: Quino, Raul Alfonsín, Mario Bunge, Daniel Barenboim! We hope to live up to the distinction we have been granted.”

Signed: Les Luthiers
Buenos Aires, 10th May 2017