Danny Ocean delivered a sublime performance during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was unable to attend the event on Wednesday (Dec. 10) in Oslo, Norway.
“The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, María Corina Machado, has done everything in her power to be able to attend the ceremony here today — a journey in a situation of extreme danger,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, during the event. However, he added: “Although she will not be able to reach this ceremony and today’s events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe, and that she will be with us here in Oslo.”
Ocean, accompanied solely by American pianist Curtis Crump Jr., opened the event by performing two classics from the Venezuelan repertoire: “Alma Llanera,” created by Rafael Bolívar Coronado (lyrics) and Pedro Elías Gutiérrez (music) and considered a popular anthem of the South American country; and “Venezuela,” written by Spanish composers Pabo Hererro Ibarz and José Luis Armenteros as a love letter to the Caribbean nation.
It was a heartfelt and elegant performance in which the 33-year-old singer — with his distinctive raspy voice and melancholic vocal inflections — conveyed the longing of millions of Venezuelans who, like him, were forced into exile.
Machado — who was set to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in the 2024 presidential elections, but was disqualified by the government — is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” according to the original Oct. 10 announcement.
In a recording of a phone call published on the Nobel Prize website, the honoree — who has remained in hiding since January 9, when she was briefly detained after joining her supporters in a protest in Caracas — said that many people had “risked their lives” to help her reach Oslo and that she was about to board a plane. “I am very grateful to them, and this is a measure of what this recognition means to the Venezuelan people,” Machado expressed.
“I know that there are hundreds of Venezuelans from different parts of the world that were able to reach your city that are right now in Oslo, family, my team, so many colleagues. And since this is a prize for all Venezuelans, I believe that it will be received by them,” she added. “And as soon as I arrive, I will be able to embrace all my family and my children that I’ve have not seen for two years and so many Venezuelans, Norwegians that I know that share our struggle and our fight.”
Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the Nobel on her behalf.
Watch the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo — with Danny Ocean’s performance starting at the 16:00 minute mark — below:
