STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) — British rock star Sting and American jazz musician Wayne Shorter received Sweden’s Polar Music Prize at a royal ceremony on Thursday (June 15).
The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by ABBA manager Stig Andersson and the winners each receive 1 million Swedish crowns.
In awarding the prize to Sting, who found fame with The Police in the late 1970s, the committee said that as a composer Sting had “combined classic pop with virtuoso musicianship and an openness to all genres and sounds from around the world.”
Sting has released more than albums since going solo in the mid-1980s. He has also acted in a list of films, including “Quadrophenia” and “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.”
The committee said saxophonist and composer Shorter had “constantly sought out untravelled paths” in a career that included work in groups such as Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet and Weather Report.