Entertainment

No reason to get excited, as Bob Dylan once sang, but the Minnesota singer-songwriter turned 70 years old on Tuesday, less than three weeks before his tour hits Europe.

Evasive as always, Dylan remained aloof from recognition all over the world and did not mention anything about his birthday on his website.

Last online posting was to say Chinese authorities asked for the names of the songs he would play in their country in a recent tour.

Dylan was criticized by Western media and by Human Rights Watch for not performing some of his best-known protest songs on his China tour in April.

Dylan said he sent Chinese officials his set lists from the previous three months of shows. He performed in Beijing on April 6 and Shanghai two days later.

"If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play," Dylan wrote in the post.

Media commentators cited the absence of songs "The Times They Are A-Changin''" and "Blowin'' in the Wind" from Dylan''s China set list as evidence that the counter-culture hero had caved to pressure.