Grammy award-winning Benin Republic-born music legend, Angelique Kidjo, has become the third African to win the prestigious Polar Music Prize.
The Polar Music Prize which is also tagged the Nobel Prize of Music is a Swedish international award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, the manager of Swedish band ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
The award is annually given to one contemporary musician and one classical musician.
Notable artistes who have won the prize since its inception include BB King, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, and many more.
Kidjo has been announced as the 2023 recipient of the Polar Music Prize, alongside Chris Blackwell from the United Kingdom and Arvo Pärt from Estonia.
Commenting on the prize, she said: “To be awarded the Polar Music Prize is humbling. I have no words to say how important this is for me. It comes with a sense of responsibility that is bestowed upon me as an artist to continue to do great work. I will do my best to be a proud recipient of the Prize through my work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, on behalf of the children, and as an ambassador of music, to help create a world in which we can all live in peace.”
Kidjo joins South Africa’s Miriam Makeba who won the prize in 2002 and Senegalese Youssou N’dour who won in 2013 as the only Africans to have won the Polar Music Prize.
