After meeting the winners in the morning, King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain led their daughters Princess of Asturias, Leonor and Infanta Sofia to the annual Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony at the Reconquista Hotel in Oviedo, Asturias. This year’s venue was chosen specifically due to the COVID-19 restrictions.
This year’s awards recognize the Spanish Health Workers who had been working on the front line since the outbreak of pandemic in March this year. King Felipe’s mother, Queen Sofia also joined the Royal Family at the annual event. Felipe in his speech talked about the Spanish strength and thanked the front line workers.
The event began with The Anthem of Asturias, performed by the “Ciudad de Oviedo” Bagpipe Band.
The Royal family arriving for the ceremony.
Once again with her calm and soothing nature and beautiful smile, the elegant Spanish Princess Leonor stole the evening with her speech. The 14-years old “I am almost fifteen years old. I follow very closely, like many children and young people my age, what happens in our country. And after not going to school for months, going back to class showed us that we have to adapt to these new circumstances, always hoping that everything will improve. But if there is something that my sister Sofía and I have learned, it is the sense of responsibility. Our parents have always taught us this.“
This year’s winners were: Princess of Asturias Award for Literature to Anne Carson, Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities to International Book Fair of Guadalajara and Hay Festival of Literature and Arts; Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; Princess of Asturias Award for Sports to Carlos Sainz; Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences to Dani Rodrick; Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts to Ennio Morricone and John Williams; Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research to Yves Myer, Ingrid Daubechies, Terence Tao, Emmanuel Candès; Princess of Asturias Award for Concord to Spanish Sanitary First Line against COVID-19.
Unlike the previous year, this year only Princess of Asturias was standing at the dice to present the awards. Up to 2018, King Felipe and Queen Letizia were presenting the awards on the behalf of Princess Leonor.
The 14-year-old Princess is being trained for the future role of Spanish Monarch. Monarchy in Spain is going through some really turbulent times and the events like this show that the future of the Royalty will remain in good hands.
After the award ceremony, the Royal Family met with the winners and the guests in the Patio of the hotel.
As we all expected for the evening, Queen Letizia chose to repeat once again. This was the first time when Queen Letizia wore an old outfit to this award ceremony. And it was not just any outfit. Queen Letizia wore her stunning blue Delpozo Flower-appliqué Jersey Dress.
We first saw the dress in December 2017 at the Sports Awards. The off-shoulder royal blue cocktail Flower-appliqué jersey dress features an asymmetric neck, three-quarter length sleeves, oversized floral detail on the front right side, flexible boning at bodice, darts at chest, structured waist, pencil skirt, pleats at skirt.
A closer look at the shoulder detailing. Queen Letizia again wore the dress in October 2018 during France visit.
Queen Letizia paired the dress with her Nina Ricci Suede earrings.
She was carrying her Magrit Liz suede bag.
Letizia finished her look with Chanel ‘Comete’diamond earrings
and Karen Hallam ring.
A look at Queen Letizia’s previous appearances at the event.