Italian opera singer Cecilia Bartoli has been announced as the recipient of this year’s prestigious Polar Music Prize, with a ceremony to be held in Stockholm, Sweden in June. Credited with reviving long-lost music, she will be one of two recipients, with Swedish songwriter Max Martin also receiving the accolade, along with a prize of $120,000 each (1 million kronor).The Polar Music Prize is the most prestigious award in Sweden, and each year is awarded to one pop artist and one classical musician. The award was created in 1989 by the manager of pop group ABBA, Stig Anderson.Following last year’s winners, U.S. country music star Emmylou Harris and Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie, this year the panel has recognized the work of Cecilia Bartoli, a mezzo-soprano from Rome with a vocal range of three octaves. Described as having “a unique ability to live a role with fullness of expression,” Bartoli has performed in the world’s leading opera houses, and has been credited for expanding the opera repertoire beyond its usual content.“[She has] dug deeply into the history of music and presented long-lost music from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries that is completely new to today’s audiences,” according The Polar Music Prize panel.Martin Sandberg, better known as Max Martin, has produced and written songs for the likes of pop artists Pink, Katy Perry and the Backstreet Boys, with perhaps his most famous hit being Britney Spears’ “...Baby One More Time.”He is “one of the most gifted song writers of modern times,” according to the panel, who first awarded a Polar Music laureate to Paul McCartney in 1992. “No composer in the world has written melodies as sustainable and widespread. Right now, at this very moment, someone, somewhere in the world will be singing a hit song written and produced by Max Martin,” the citation for the Stockholm-born artist said.
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