Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Polar Music Prize has skipped its annual ceremony for the second year in a row. 2020 laureates Diane Warren and Anna Netrebko will be feted this year; Marie Ledin, managing director of the Prize, announced that "2020 Laureates, Diane Warren and Anna Netrebko, will be honored on various occasions throughout this year and we will announce details soon." Next year's ceremony, taking place on May 24, 2022, will celebrate new, to-be-announced laureates.
"Next year is special to us as it will be 30 years since the first presentation of the Polar Music Prize to Sir Paul McCartney and the Baltic States in 1992. We will continue in the very special tradition initiated by the founder of the Prize, the late Stikkan Anderson, but there is no such thing as business as usual with the Polar Music Prize," says Alfons Karabuda, chairman of the Polar Music Prize committee. "The very reason for its existence is to show the remarkable, diverse and sometimes unexpected impact that the laureates have had on the world of music and sometimes on society as a whole, through their talent, dedication and that extra ingredient we call musical excellence. No year bears resemblance with the previous ones and 2022 will be no exception. So what can we say about the laureates of 2022? Well, nothing until Feb. 8, when the announcement will take place in Stockholm."