Queen, Herbie Hancock and Barbara Hannigan win 2025 Polar Music Prize

Euronews

18-03-2025

British rock band Queen, American jazz legend Herbie Hancock, and Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan are the 2025 recipients of the Polar Music Prize.
The three acts will be presented with the prize by the Swedish royal family at a ceremony on 27 May in Stockholm.
Founded in 1989 by ABBA manager Stig Anderson, the Polar Music Prize is an annual award, usually given to one contemporary and one classical musician. Each laureate receives 1 million Swedish Krona (€91,000) and previous winners have included Paul McCartney, Chuck Berry and Ravi Shankar.
This is only the third time in the prize's history that it hasn't been awarded to two musicians. In 2001, three recipients were named: American musician Burt Bacharach; German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen; alongside the inventor Robert Moog, known for his MiniMoog synthesizers. Two years later, in 2003, the prize only named one recipient: American jazz composer Keith Jarrett.
The 2025 prize makes it the first time that the committee has awarded three musician recipients, one in contemporary, jazz and classical genres each.
Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon from Queen said that they were 'highly and deeply honoured to be given the Polar Music Prize this year. It's incredible, thank you so much'.
Hancock said that it 'is a prestigious honour, and I am both thrilled and humbled to be a recipient. The Laureates who have come before me have left an indelible mark on humanity through their profound examples of inspiration and dedication.'
Finally, Hannigan said: 'I am deeply moved and humbled to receive this year's Polar Music Prize. Thank you so much for including me among this incredible and inspiring group of Laureates.'
Queen's reputation as one of the most influential British rock bands of all time is hard to overstate. Since their formation in 1970 with the magnetic frontman Freddie Mercury, the group has sold over 300 million albums worldwide. From their famous Live Aid performance to Oscar-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and Broadway musical 'We Will Rock You', Queen are one of the most enduring acts of the 20th century.
Similarly, Herbie Hancock, 84, has left an indelible mark on the history of music. The child prodigy pianist had a remarkable solo career performing to sold-out stadiums. Also noteworthy is his work alongside jazz legend Miles Davis, and the fact he is the first Black composer to win an Oscar for Best Original Score for Round Midnight.
Canadian classical musician Barbara Hannigan, 53, has spent her 30-year-long career as a soprano singer performing the world premieres of nearly 100 new works. Having debuted as a conductor aged 40 at the Châtelet in Paris, Hannigan has a reputation for her innovative orchestral programmes. She won a Grammy for her 2018 album 'Crazy Girl Crazy'.
French police have evicted more than 400 young migrants that had been occupying La Gaîté Lyrique theatre, in the centre of Paris. Shortly before 6am on Tuesday morning, police officers went through activists and charged the migrants, using batons and tear gas to disperse the occupiers.
Police also arrested 46 people, most of them migrants. Their legal status will be reviewed and they could face deportation, Paris chief police Laurent Nuñez said on BFMTV.
The eviction came a month after an order from a local administrative court, which claimed that the occupation created major security and health risks for the young migrants. Nuñez, who instructed the evacuation, said the occupation was a 'threat to public order.'
'At this stage, it was the right thing to do because the situation was very complex, very tense and very dangerous inside the building', Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo reacted on France Inter after the event.
Une publication partagée par Collectif des Jeunes du Parc de Belleville (@belleville.mobilisation)
Leftist lawmakers denounced the use of violence on the scene and a lack of concrete solutions from authorities.
The occupation of La Gaîté Lyrique began on 10 December, at the instigation of the Belleville Park Youth Collective - an organisation founded by minors and young adults from sub-Saharan Africa.
Many of the occupiers had come to France as unaccompanied minors, but they claimed that French authorities had denied them the protection that comes with this legal status. By the end of the first night, around 200 people had found shelter in the theatre and demanded that the authorities provide them with housing.
The venue quickly decided to suspend its artistic activities.
In several statements, the theatre expressed regret over the 'sudden, spontaneous nature of this occupation' but recognised its legitimacy and condemned 'the inaction and lack of dialogue between the government and the City of Paris.'
Located in the liberal neighbourhood of the Maris, La Gaîté Lyrique is known for its artsy opera and ballet performances but also for its conferences on current topics ranging from climate change, gender issues and new technologies.
The 19th-century theatre is a cultural venue as much as a community space.
'La Gaîté Lyrique should be a place where you go even if you don't really know why, because you know there will always be something going on,' artistic director Vincent Cavaroc said in 2023.
Throughout the monthslong occupation, La Gaîté Lyrique staff members worked with NGOs to maintain the building and provide care to the occupants. However, the venue had been under increasing pressure.
'The situation in the building is at a tipping point, with untenable overcrowded resulting in increasingly severe and frequent violence,' the theatre said in a statement on 26 February.
The future of the young migrants evicted from the theatre remains uncertain. Paris chief of police Laurent Nuñez said they would be offered shelter, without providing more details.
According to Franceinfo, authorities had previously offered the occupiers to be relocated in Rouen, a city about two hours from Paris. Most of them had refused, not wanting to uproot the life that they had built in the capital.