Nile Rodgers Celebrated At Sweden’s Polar Music Prize 2024
Nile Rodgers received the 2024 Polar Music Prizes from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a royal ceremony held at Stockholm’s Grand Hotel on Tuesday night (21 May).
Rodgers was receiving the award alongside Esa-Pekka Salonen, the world-renowned composer and conductor and the current music director for the San Francisco Symphony.
The Polar Music Prize was first presented to Paul McCartney and the Baltic States in 1992 after it was founded and funded by Stig ‘Stikkan’ Anderson, manager of ABBA and a songwriter in his own right, as well as a music publisher and label owner.
The Chic star said upon accepting his award from the king. “I know that music changes lives,” Rodgers told the audience of over 300 guests. “I’ve been told, ‘Artists are the gatekeepers of truth.’ I am honored to be here tonight in such distinguished company. Congratulations to the outstanding Esa-Pekka Salonen and all the past recipients of the Polar Music Prize. To have been acknowledged in the same way as Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin, Chuck Berry, Joni Mitchell, Ennio Morricone and so many more of my heroes is a dream come true.
“I would like to give a very special thanks to the Polar Music Prize for recognizing so many artists of color, and to the people of Sweden for welcoming us with open arms, from Eric Dolphy and Miles Davis to Jimi Hendrix, way before most people did. I say this from the bottom of my heart: We are family.”
Rodgers and Salonen join a long list of Laureates who have been awarded the Prize over the last 32 years, including Bruce Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, B. B. King, Burt Bacharach, Sting, Renée Fleming, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Quincy Jones, Yo-Yo Ma, Max Martin, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Angélique Kidjo, Patti Smith, Wayne Shorter, Björk, Metallica, Diane Warren, Ray Charles, Ravi Shankar, Chris Blackwell, Dizzy Gillespie, Miriam Makeba, Iggy Pop, Grandmaster Flash, Yousou N’Dour, Gilberto Gil, Sonny Rollins and Isaac Stern.