Barbara Hannigan wins 2025 Polar Music Prize

Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan has today been revealed as a 2025 winner of the Polar Music Prize, alongside rock band Queen and jazz musician Herbie Hancock. The trio receive their awards at a ceremony on 27 May in Stockholm in the presence of the Swedish Royal Family, and each receive a cash prize of one million Swedish Krona (around £76,500 GBP).

Hannigan, Hancock and Queen were chosen by the Polar Music Prize awards committee, an independent, 11-member board, based on nominations from the public as well as from the International Music Council. The 2025 winners join a list of previous laureates including Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Ennio Morricone, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Kronos Quartet, Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Metallica, Ravi Shankar, Renée Fleming and Sofia Gubaidulina. 

Polar Music Prize managing director Marie Ledin said: ‘Barbara Hannigan is a presence like no other; a passionate soprano and conductor of a unique and courageous path. We are looking forward to celebrating all three recipients at this year’s event.’ 

The Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig ‘Stikkan’ Anderson, the publisher, lyricist and manager of ABBA, and is named after Anderson’s record label Polar Music. Hannigan wins the prize in recognition of her ‘exceptional musicality and courage’ as ‘one of the world's foremost interpreters of contemporary classical music’. Having started her career as a soprano, Barbara turned her hand to conducting at age 40 at the Châtelet in Paris.

About her unique style she said: ‘There’s a slight splitting of the brain. As a singer, you need to be a little bit ahead, mainly in the centre of the timing. With conducting, you need to be further ahead. It’s like I have two different click tracks in my head at the same time.’

Alongside a legacy of starring soprano roles on opera stages across the globe, Hannigan is principal guest conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and l'Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and associate artist with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2026, Hannigan will take the helm of Iceland Symphony Orchestra as their chief conductor and artistic director.