Björk & Ennio Morricone have won Swedish 2010 Polar Music Prize

Italian composer Ennio Morricone & Icelandic singer Björk share Sweden’s Polar Music Prize
Italian Ennio Morricone & Icelandic Björk have won the 2010 Polar Music Prize. They will be invited to accept the award, which includes 1 million kronor ($130,000) each in prize money, @ a ceremony in Stockholm later this year.
The Polar Music Prize is Sweden’s biggest music award and is typically shared by a pop artist and a classical musician. It was founded by Stig Anderson, manager of Swedish pop group ABBA, in 1989.
Prize committee Chairman Alfons Karabuda said 44-year-old Björk personifies the border-breaking attributes sought by the committee, “bravely and without compromises.”
Björk sang in various Icelandic bands in the 1980’s and rose to international fame with her solo album “Debut” in 1993. She has since released five more solo albums as well as film soundtracks and compilations. She also won the Cannes Film Festival’s 2000 award for best actress for her role in Lars von Trier’s “Dancer in the Dark.”
“With her deeply personal music and lyrics, her precise arrangements and her unique voice, Björk has already made an indelible mark on pop music and modern culture at large, despite her relative youth,” the prize committee said in its citation.
Morricone, 71, has composed more than 400 film scores, including the iconic theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and other spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone.
The prize committee said his “congenial compositions and arrangements” help lift “existence to another plain, making the mundane feel like dramatic scenes in full Cinemascope.”
“He built up a brand new kind of music that set the tone for half a century of film music, but also influenced and inspired a number of musicians in the spheres of pop, rock and classical music,” the committee said in its quotation.
Last year’s award was shared by British musician Peter Gabriel and Venezuelan composer Jose Antonio Abreu.

"The Polar Music Prize 2010 is being awarded to Icelandic artist Björk. With her deeply personal music and lyrics, her precise arrangements and her unique voice, Björk has already made an indelible mark on pop music and modern culture at large, despite her relative youth. No other artist moves so freely between avant-garde and pop. With her albums and videos, Björk has taken avant-garde to the top of the charts. She has also always embraced technological advances, combining computers with ancient sounds. Björk has introduced an arctic temperament to popular music and shown how passionate and explosive it can be. Björk is an untameable force of nature, an artist who marches to nobod's tune but her own."
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Source:
Polar Music Prize
AP