Poet, singer and songwriter Patti Smith is this year’s recipient of Sweden’s Polar Music Prize.
Smith will receive the award from King Carl XVI Gustaf in a ceremony at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm on August 30.
“By devoting her life to art in all its forms, Patti Smith has demonstrated how much rock’n'roll there is in poetry and how much poetry there is in rock’n'roll,” a spokesperson for the Prize announced. “Patti Smith is a Rimbaud with Marshall amps. She has transformed the way an entire generation looks, thinks and dreams. With her inimitable soul of an artist, Patti Smith proves over and over again that people have the power”.
The Kronos Quartet will also receive the award.
The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by the late Stig Anderson (manager of Abba).
Previous recipients include Paul McCartney, Elton John, Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Pink Floyd, Sonny Rollins, B.B. King and Bob Dylan.
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