POLAR MUSIC PRIZE

News added 1999-11-28
Trouble at the Polar Prize Foundation.
The managing diractor for the Polar Prize Foundation, since its start in 1990, has resigned. Hélène Hellsten-Adamsson said she quit the job due to the Prize not being well known enough abroard and also that she had got another job offer. She further stated that there is no conflict behind the decision and that she will attend the next prize cermony in May 2000.

Polar Music Prize is a foundation that Stikkan started with 42 of all the millions of SEK he had earned mainly thanks to ABBA. The foundation "belongs" to the Royal Swedish Music Academy. It was to Stikkan what he considered to be his life work. And supposedly the only regret was that it was never (so far) made part of the Nobel Prize. He was until his death chairman of the prize committee, other members included his son in law Tomas Ledin. The prize seems to be in many senses becoming the Nobel Prize of music (as intended), and is also slowly starting to gain respect in Sweden.

The prize is around 2 million SEK. It seems as there is one "rock or pop" and one "classical" each year. The prize is handed over by His Majesty The King Carl XVI Gustaf. The three Baltic states makes an odd winner, but the purpose was to use the prize money to build a copyright organization in each of the countries. Dizzy Gillespie was alive when the prize was announced (it is made public a few months before the ceremony), but tragically died before he could receive it.

Go to The Polar Music Prize site, at http://www.polarmusicprize.se/.