Paul Simon

I am grateful to be the recipient of the Gershwin Prize and doubly honored to be the first. I look forward to spending an evening in the company of artists I admire at the award ceremony in May. I can think of a few who have expressed my words and music far better than I. I’m excited at the prospect of that happening again. It’s a songwriter’s dream come true.
—Paul Simon

During his distinguished career, Paul Simon has received numerous honors, including 16 Grammy Awards--three for album of the year: “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in 1970 (with musical partner Art Garfunkel), “Still Crazy After All These Years” in 1976 and “Graceland” in 1986, which was also selected for the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.

Simon is a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as half of the Simon and Garfunkel duo and again in 2001 as a soloist. He is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and a recipient of the prestigious Johnny Mercer Award. In 2002, he became a Kennedy Center Honoree, and in 2006 “Time Magazine” named Simon one of the “100 People Who Shaped the World.” Of Simon's many concert appearances, he is most fond of the two concerts in New York's Central Park (with Art Garfunkel in 1981 and as a solo artist in 1991), and the ground-breaking shows he performed at the invitation of Nelson Mandela in South Africa as the first American artist to perform there post-apartheid.

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