Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden met rock royalty when they celebrated the legendary band, Queen.
The Swedish King awarded Queen members Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor with the Polar Music Prize. Hosted at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, the evening celebrated the musicians’ long careers in the industry.
The King and Queen of Sweden were joined by Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Daniel, and Prince Carl Philip.
The musicians were grateful for their award. Sir Brian shared that he couldn’t have imagined his career, saying he couldn’t “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”.
The Polar Music Prize was created in 1989 by ABBA manager Stig Anderson with the first prize awarded in 1992, and it is “awarded for significant achievements in music and/or musical activity, or for achievements which are found to be of great potential importance for music or musical activity, and it shall be referable to all fields within or closely connected with music”.
The band has more royal connections, though. In 2002, May stood on the roof of Buckingham Palace to perform “God Save the Queen” on guitar for Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee. And in 2022, he once again performed at Buckingham Palace for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.