STOCKHOLM (AP) — Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature.
It was a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award on a musician for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."
Reporters and others gathered at the Swedish Academy's headquarters in Stockholm's Old Town reacted with a loud cheer as his name was read out.
The 75-year-old Dylan is arguably the most iconic poet-musician of his generation. Songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" became anthems for the U.S. anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s. His impact on popular culture was immense.
But although he had been mentioned in the Nobel speculation for years, many experts had ruled him out, thinking the academy wouldn't extend its more than a century-old award to the world of music.
Dylan is the first American winner of the Nobel literature prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.