In Sweden, the Polar Music Prize is kind of a big deal. According to Björk’s website:
The Polar Music Prize is an annual music prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. It was created in 1989 with funds donated by Stig Anderson, manager of ABBA and founder of the record label Polar Music. The awardees will each be receiving one million crisp Swedish Kronor, which will be handed to them personally by the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf on a ceremony on August 30th.
This year’s recipients are Icelandic iconoclast Björk and Italian composer Ennio Morricone, the latter of whom is perhaps most well known for his score of the Spaghetti western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but he has composed many scores that have been successful in their own right. As for Björk, she has been an active musician since the late ’70s, but not rising to popularity until her stint with pop-punk band The Sugarcubes and later becoming a successful solo artist. Both Morricone and Björk have been enormously influential in the music world and beyond.
