Metallica are among the honorees set to receive Sweden’s prestigious Polar Music Prize during a June 14 ceremony in Stockholm.
The band will be recognized alongside fellow laureates Afghanistan National Institute Of Music (ANIM) and Dr. Ahmad Sarmast with the award, which celebrates the power and importance of music and is given to individuals, groups or institutions for international recognition of excellence in the world of music.
The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by the late Stig "Stikkan" Anderson, a true legend in the history of Swedish popular music as the publisher, lyricist and manager of ABBA. The name of the prize stems from Anderson's renowned record label, Polar Music, and each year the Polar Music Prize awards two laureates in order to celebrate music in all its various forms and to emphasize the original intention of the prize: to break down musical boundaries by bringing together people from all different worlds of music and promote geographical and musical diversity.
The honor will be presented by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
“We are in awe of the distinguished, diverse group of laureates we will be joining,” says Metallica, “including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Chuck Berry, Sonny Rollins, Yo-Yo Ma, Dizzy Gillespie, Isaac Stern and Ennio Morricone just to name a few of the previous award recipients.”
"Receiving the Polar Music Prize is an incredible thing,” adds drummer Lars Ulrich. “It puts us in very distinguished company. It's a great validation of everything that Metallica has done over the last 35 years. At the same time, we feel like we're in our prime with a lot of good years ahead of us. Thank you very much."
Each honoree receives a total amount of one million Swedish kronor (US $125,000); Metallica will donate the funds to their All Within My Hands Foundation, which is dedicated to creating sustainable communities by supporting workforce education, the fight against hunger, and other critical local services.
To learn more about the Polar Music Prize, visit polarmusicprize.org
Metallica are currently playing dates across Europe in support of their tenth album, “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.”
The set debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 with opening week sales of 291,000 equivalent album units to deliver the group their sixth US chart-topper.
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