Chris Blackwell, on receiving the award, stated: “There may be nothing straightforward concerning the act of making music… There is just one query – what’s extra essential? To be heard, or to listen to?
“While you hearken to others, you discover the house to know their many prospects. It means that you can carry forth what’s already there…My hope is that all of us proceed to make music, to make use of music as a shared human endeavour that evokes pleasure and delight, and connects communities and generations collectively in a language of concord. That I hope, is my legacy. With all these I’ve labored with, over the past 50 years.”
Angélique Kidjo stated: “I began my profession on the age of six when my pricey mom shoved me on stage in entrance of a stay viewers. I used to be so scared that I might really feel my complete skeleton shaking. However the viewers began to chuckle and clap. It made me really feel good, it made me really feel at residence. Since that day I haven’t left the stage!”
On receiving the award in the identical 12 months as Chris Blackwell, who signed Angélique to Island Information within the eighties, Angélique stated that her life “was modified in a single day”. She added: “I had despatched my music to each document firm in Paris. Nobody was , nobody cared. Then the African activist Mamadou Konté despatched it to somebody in Jamaica who confirmed true ardour for my work, signed me instantly and began me down the trail to success. This individual was Chris Blackwell. He has allowed me to construct these bridges between all the gorgeous music and peoples of the world, in order that we are able to rejoice our frequent humanity.”
Michael Pärt, son of Arvo Pärt, collected the award on behalf of his father. He stated “My father wish to specific his heartfelt gratitude to the Polar Music Prize committee, in addition to to all of the musicians and listeners who’ve supported his music all through the years. Arvo sends his like to all of you right here tonight.
“My father’s music is a reminder of our frequent humanity, of the issues that unite us reasonably than divide us. It’s a name to like, to empathy, and to understanding.”
Additionally in attendance on the 2023 ceremony was Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens and Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, two of the era-defining acts on Island Information, signed to the label by Chris Blackwell within the seventies.
The ceremony and banquet occurred at The Grand Resort in Stockholm, Sweden. It featured musical performances by Swedish artists, together with Daniela Rathana singing “Pull Up To The Bumper” by Island Information artist Grace Jones, and Deportees lined U2’s “With Or With out You”. Benjamin Ingrosso sang “Wild World” with Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens watching on, whereas Anna Ternheim carried out “Love Is The Drug” with Phil Manzanrera seated within the viewers. Ysee gave a rendition of Angelique Kidjo’s “Agolo”, and the S:t Jacobs Camber Choir carried out “The Deer’s Cry” by Arvo Pärt. The night additionally noticed a efficiency by certainly one of France’s hottest jazz artists, Ibrahim Maalouf.
The Polar Music Prize was based in 1989 by the late Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, a legend within the historical past of Swedish music and writer, lyricist and supervisor of ABBA, to rejoice excellence in music. Stig Anderson believed that music was equally as essential to society as, for instance, science, drugs and literature, and may have a prize to replicate this.
Earlier recipients of the Polar Music Prize embrace Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Chuck Berry, Ennio Morricone, Led Zeppelin, Patti Smith, Stevie Marvel, Paul Simon, Kronos Quartet, Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Metallica, Iggy Pop, Ravi Shankar, Renée Fleming, Miriam Makeba, Wayne Shorter, Sofia Gubaidulina and plenty of extra.
