The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, who was one of the true greats in the Swedish music industry. Stig Anderson donated a large sum of money to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music with the aim to create The Polar Music Prize. The name comes from Stig Anderson’s legendary record company, Polar Records.
Without any restrictions of nationality, the prize is "awarded for significant achievements in music and/or musical activity, or for achievements which are found to be of great potential importance for music or musical activity, and it shall be referable to all fields within or closely connected with music" It is a prize committee - not a jury - who chooses the winners through all the nominations. The prize committee takes care of the suggestions and has also it’s own suggestion-right. Today the Polar Music Prize is the most prestigious prize in the world. The list over prize-winners is long:
1992- Paul McCartney and The Baltic states 1993- Witold Lutoslawski and Dizzy Gillespie 1994- Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Quincy Jones 1995- Mstislav Rostropovitch and Elton John 1996- Joni Mitchell and Pierre Boulez 1997- Eric Ericson and Bruce Springsteen 1998- Ravi Shankar and Ray Charles 1999- Iannis Xenakis and Stevie Wonder 2000- Isaac Stern and Bob Dylan 2001- Burt Bacharach, Robert Moog and Karlheinz Stockhausen.	Stig "Stikkan" Anderson

Usually there are only two winners each year but this year there was a ten-year-celebration. So that’s why three were chosen as winners. The Polar Music Prize is presented in Stockholm by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav and the winners receive a sum of two million Swedish Crowns. The Prize yearly and the prize award ceremony takes place on 18 May. When Stig "Stikkan" Anderson, in May 1989, donated 42 million crowns, his wish was to create "The World’s Biggest Music Award". He has not far to go. The Polar Music Prize is with it’s breadth and size unique in the world.

Stig "Stikkan" Anderson

1989 Stig Anderson donated 42 million SKR to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. That was the beginning of the Polar Music Prize.

When Stikkan Anderson was 19 years old he made his debut writing texts and composing songs. He wrote many songs, some of them became minor hits. In the 60-s Stikkans record-company, Sweden Music, was the biggest producer of popular music in Scandinavia. Stikkan figured that he needed something more, a record label, to complete his company so he established Polar Records International AB that made great success with local artists during the 60-s.

The big international breakthrough came with a Swedish group -ABBA. Stikkan was their manager and text-writer and 1974 the group won the European Song Contest in Brighton with the song Waterloo.

In 1989 Stig Anderson sold his company to Polygram but he was remained as the chairman for Swedish Music AB and Polar Music International.

Stikkan Anderson received many Swedish and international distinctions during his years , for example he was a honorary member in The Royal Swedish Academy of Music. But the price he was most proud of was the international Billboard Magazine’s Trendsetter Award. The only European who had received the price before him was Brian Epstein who was Beatles’ manager.

Stig Anderson died on 12th September 1997.

© 2001 Freeway
Writers: Rebecca Ström(sp03-17@park.se), Nathalie Norman (sp03-15@park.se)
HTML by: Emil Wiberg (te03-63@park.se).