According to stereogum.com, Queen, Herbie Hancock and Canadian soprano/conductor Barbara Hannigan were honored as recipients of the 2025 Polar Music Prize at Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden tonight. Swedish Idol winner Erik Grönwall sang “Stone Cold Crazy,” Swedish pop singer Miriam Bryant performed “The Show Must Go On,” Tobias Forge of Ghost did “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Opeth guitarist Fredrik Åkesson and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir and Queen collaborator Adam Lambert sang Queen’s “Who Wants To Live Forever” and “Another One Bites The Dust.”

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was also covered by Benson Boone with Queen guitarist Brian May at Coachella last month. On receiving the Polar Music Prize, May said: “In this special moment, I contemplate how that younger Brian May in 1974 would have felt if he knew that we would be living this kind of dream 50 years in the future. For Queen, Swedish audiences have actually been the most loyally supportive in the world.”

Drummer Roger Taylor adds “When we started our band…we had ambitions but never dreamed of the journey that was to follow. We were fortunate in the fact that our four wildly different personalities came together to achieve a wonderful chemistry.”

The artist concludes with: “The Polar Music Prize is exceptional in the fact that unlike other awards it recognizes the entirety of an artiste’s career. What an honor to be included in the glittering cavalcade of previous laureates. True Olympian company indeed. We are so proud to be the recipients of this incredibly prestigious award.”

Photo Credit: Ekaterina Gorbacheva