After receiving the Polar Music Prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in Stockholm on June 14, Metallica has donated its monetary award of one million Swedish Kroner (just over $130,000) to three charities.
Billboard reports the band is giving 50 percent of their prize money to the Stockholm City Mission, which supports the homeless; 25 percent to the World Childhood Foundation, founded by Sweden’s Queen Silvia; and 25 percent to the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, also a recipient of this year’s Polar Music Prize.
Metallica was one of this year’s Laureates, along with Dr. Ahmad Sarmast and ANIM, the music school he founded in 2010 in response to that country’s civil war and destruction of centuries of rich musical tradition.
“Many of the Polar Music Prize Laureates over the years have donated their prize money to charity,” Marie Ledin, managing director of the Prize, told Billboard. “It’s not something we ask of them, but we appreciate their generosity. I know my father, Stig Anderson, would be very happy and proud to know of our Laureates’ great charitable donations.”
Anderson, the manager of ABBA and a well-known lyricist, music publisher and record label owner, founded and funded the Prize in the late 1980s and the first ceremony was held in 1992.
Metallica were honored by members of Deep Purple, Ghost and more during the Polar Music Prize ceremony at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm.
The rockers will resume their WorldWired tour in support of their tenth album, “Hardwired…To Self-Destruct”, in Madison, WI on September 2.
See also:
VIDEO: Metallica honored with Polar Music Prize in Stockholm
Metallica to be honored by Deep Purple and Ghost at Polar Music Prize event
Metallica and fans perform first Day Of Service at US food banks
PRO VIDEO: Metallica perform Creeping Death in Helsinki
Search Metallica at hennemusic
