Benny attended and received the Opus Klassik Award for his album Piano in Berlin on Sunday 14 October 2018. His award was in the category "Klassik ohne Grenzen" ("Classical music without borders"), the first time this prize had been awarded by The Association for the Promotion of Classical Music for outstanding classical artists and sound recordings.

The programme was filmed and broadcast on ZDF, Germany, later that same evening.

The gala award show was hosted by Thomas Gottschalk who Benny has met several times in the past: Thommy's Pop Show (1982); Na, sowas! Extra (1984) and  
Na, sowas! (1986).

Benny played Chess on the piano. However, he was extremely nervous and before he started to play he looked at the audience and told them he was nervous. As he started to play you could see his hands shaking and, most unusually for him, he made several mistakes as he played and each time he made a mistake, he winced.

You could see his relief as he finished and addressed the audience after receiving his award presented by German singer and leader of the Palast Orchestra, Max Raabe.  He apologised for addressing them in English and also for his nerves and admitted the piece was twice as long but he had cut it short as his hands were shaking so much.  He promised the audience if they stayed behind afterwards he would play it for them again!  He said how he had been extremely surprised and humbled to have been nominated for such a presticious prize and that he had originally made the album just so that his grandchildren would have a recording of him playing the piano but now thought it had been quite a good idea.  He also felt it was special as it was the first time he'd received an award that was just for him and as part of a group like ABBA or BAO!

Why was he so nervous?  Probably because he felt he was in the presence of 'better' muscians as the audience was made up of classically-trained musicians and Benny has never considered himself a good piano player (composer, yes). This was also a big deal for him as it was the first major award he had won on his own.

At the end of the programme, he accompanied the line-up of musical performers with Thank You For The Music although you couldn't hear his piano-playing over the bad timing of the singers.

Other live performances during the programme included opera stars Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez, Regula Mühlemann, Lucas & Arthur Jussen, 4 Times Baroque and Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last May.

A short clip of rehearsals showing Benny playing Thank You For The Music was also made available.

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Previous: Associated Press Interview (Björn)

Thanks to Intermezzo, Rik Eijer c/o ABBAtalk, icethesite.com and Erik Menkens and Pascale Ranson c/o ABBA Village.
YouTube links c/o Nina Ríos and Stoffel137