Opera singer Pretty Yende has received the Order of Arts and Letters in France; the award is given to those whose creativity has helped develop the arts in France.
Paris, France (12 October 2022) – South African Opera singer Pretty Yende has earned yet another recognition from the international world for her contribution to the arts. She has been awarded an Order of Arts and Letters award by France’s Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak.
Born in 1985 in a remote town in South Africa, Pretty Yende was first introduced to operatic music at the age of sixteen when hearing the Flower Duet from Delibes’s opera Lakmé in a British Airways commercial. At that moment she decided to become an opera singer.
Years later Yende is one of opera’s fastest-rising divas, a star of Milan’s La Scala, New York’s Met and as a top billing at London’s Covent Garden.
Yende rose to the top of the opera world with unparalleled speed, with competition successes and engagements at the world’s foremost opera houses.
Yende made her professional operatic debut at the Latvian National Theatre in Riga as Micaela in Carmen and has since been seen at nearly all of the major theatres of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Alla Scala, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and many others.
In 2019, Italy honoured her with the Order of “Knight of the Italian Star”. Pretty was the youngest South African to receive this honour.
This week, Pretty was bestowed with another great honour, this time in Paris, France. She was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters by France’s Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak. The award is given to those whose creativity has helped develop the arts and literature in France and throughout the world.
“This has just happened, I’m in awe and utter gratitude for such a prestigious Honor from the Minister of Culture in France, Rima Abdul Malak , Merci.
I feel extremely honored and humbled by such a prestigious Decoration”
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