Queen, Herbie Hancock & Barbara Hannigan Named 2025 Polar Music Prize Laureates

British rock royalty Queen, American jazz great Herbie Hancock and Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan are the 2025 recipients of the Polar Music Prize. The ceremony will be held on Tuesday, May 27, at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm and is set to broadcast live in Sweden on TV4 at 8 p.m. CET.

The three surviving members of Queen – Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon – said in a joint statement: “We are highly and deeply honoured to be given the Polar Music Prize this year. It’s incredible, thank you so much.”

Hancock, 84, said: “The Polar Music Prize 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.”

Hannigan, 53, 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.” 

Hancock has worked closely with previous Polar Music Prize Laureates Joni Mitchell and Wayne Shorter. Hannigan has worked with previous Laureates Pierre Boulez, György Ligeti and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Formed in 1970, Queen are one of the most successful bands ever to have emerged from the U.K. Bohemian Rhapsody, the 2018 biopic about the band, is the top-grossing music biopic in film history. The film received four Oscars, including best actor for Rami Malek as lead singer Freddie Mercury (who died in 1991).

Queen was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Queen, shockingly, never won a competitive Grammy, and received just four nominations. But the band received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2018.

In 1987, Hancock became the first Black composer to win an Oscar for best original score for Round Midnight. (Prince had previously won best original song score for Purple Rain.) Hancock has received 14 Grammy Awards, across R&B, jazz and pop categories. His highest-profile Grammy was album of the year in 2008 for River: The Joni Letters, a tribute to Mitchell. Hancock received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2016.

At the inaugural MTV Video Awards in 1984, Hancock won five awards, more than any other artist, all for the video for his instrumental hit “Rockit.” He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2013.

Having started her career as a soprano, Hannigan turned her hand to conducting at age 40 at the Châtelet in Paris. Now, she balances both pursuits. Hannigan is principal guest conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and l’Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and associate artist with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2026, she will take the helm of Iceland Symphony Orchestra as their chief conductor and artistic director.

Hannigan won a Grammy in 2018: best classical solo vocal album for Crazy Girl Crazy.

Previous Polar Music Prize Laureates include Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Chuck Berry, Ennio Morricone, Led Zeppelin, Patti Smith, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kronos Quartet, Elton John, Metallica, Iggy Pop, Ravi Shankar, Renée Fleming, Miriam Makeba, Sofia Gubaidulina and Angélique Kidjo.

The Polar Music Prize is presented at a ceremony in Stockholm in the presence of the Swedish royal family. Each Laureate will receive a cash award of one million Swedish Krona (approx. £74,082 GBP and $93,897 USD).

The Polar Music Prize awards committee is an independent, 11-member board who select the Laureates. It receives nominations from the public as well as from the International Music Council, a nongovernmental organization founded by UNESCO which promotes geographical and musical diversity.

The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, a legend in the history of Swedish popular music. Anderson was the manager, publisher and lyricist for ABBA, and played a key role in the quartet’s enormous global success. The prize was named after Anderson’s record label, Polar Music.