Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize for Literature

Is there anything that Bob Dylan can't do?

The iconic folk singer has been honoured today with a Nobel Prize for Literature, a decision that has surprised many given that the prize is usually awarded for more traditional forms of writing such as novels or plays.

The 75-year-old Dylan has been chosen as this year's Nobel Prize recipient “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

Dylan was described by Sara Danils, Secretary of the Swedish Academy, as “A great sampler … and for 54 years he has been at it, reinventing himself.”

Danils specifically praised Dylan's seventh and perhaps best-loved album Blonde on Blonde, calling it “An extraordinary example of his brilliant way of rhyming. putting together refrains, and his brilliant way of thinking.”

Referring to the surprising nature of the announcement, Danils said “if you look far back, 5000 years, you discover Homer and Sappho. They wrote poetic texts which were meant to be performed, and it’s the same way for Bob Dylan. We still read Homer and Sappho, and we enjoy it.”