Peter Gabriel has picked up Midem’s Personality of the Year award at a glittering gala dinner in Cannes, France.
A range of top executives, including U2 manager Paul McGuinness, the IFPI’s John Kennedy and veteran promoter Harvey Goldsmith were at the Carlton Hotel to see the musician, world music champion and Internet music pioneer – who recently broke his leg skiing – hobble on stage to collect the gong.
Describing himself as “very humbled,” Gabriel thanked “the people who made my dreams real” and also declared the music biz’s current financial woes should lead to a new burst of creativity.
“If the music biz is a corpse, let’s put it in the ground and grow interesting things from it,” he said.
Musical tributes came from some of Gabriel’s favorite musicians, including Simon Emmerson, Eliza Carthy, Maryam Mursal and Charlie Winston, with Gabriel himself joining in on backing vocals for one song.
