Iggy Pop and Diane Warren were awarded the Swedish Polar Music Prize – The Hollywood Reporter
On Tuesday, Iggy Pop and Ensemble intercontemporain were each awarded the Polar Music Prize 2022 at a ceremony in Stockholm.
The prize, which celebrates excellence in music, is awarded each year to a popular music artist and a classical artist. Songwriter Diane Warren also accepted the 2020 award at the ceremony, as COVID had delayed previous awards.
When Iggy Pop received the award, Iggy Pop commented: “Recognition is a hard mistress … Ada Osterberg, a Swedish emigrant to the United States, adopted my father James …[Ada] was a nurse in the Red Cross and raised my father during the Great Depression … These were amazing people, real people. I’m neither big nor real. At this point, I’m a myth. Fortunately, music is a form of myth. All beauty comes from believing in myths. But every now and then you have to become real – like balls. That’s how I came here. So when you think of music, when you think of this award and if you remember me, think of the balls. ”
Thirteen-time Oscar nominee Diane Warren was on hand to receive her 2020 award as well. In her speech, she said: “I have always looked at my songs as a passport. They have taken me, a child from Van Nuys, California with the crazy dream of becoming a songwriter, to many places I could only imagine going to – to the voices of some of the greatest singers on the planet, to people’s hearts will never know all over the world that my songs have touched in some way and somehow become part of the soundtrack of their lives, to the Oscars, to so many places that I just fantasized about going to. To this evening, to this country, to this prestigious award. I can not believe that my name is now among the great artists who have also received this honor … “
She continued: “This is what I still wake up every day and live to do. I never realize for a minute how lucky I am. That I can write a song to make someone feel good, feel seen, feel “Understand, feel less alone. How cool is that not? Thank you for this award and for a fantastic evening I will never forget.”
The Polar Music Prize has been awarded annually since the start in 1989 by Swedish music icon Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, who was a publisher, copywriter and head of ABBA. The recipients have been Sir Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Björk, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Grandmaster Flash, Ann-Sophie Mutter and Metallica. This year’s ceremony took place at The Grand Hotel in Stockholm.