Cecilia Bartoli, Max Martin win Polar Music Prize

Italian opera singer Cecilia Bartoli and Swedish songwriter-producer Martin Sandberg have won the 2016 Polar Music Prize.

Bartoli, a mezzo-soprano from Rome with a vocal range of three octaves, has sung in the world’s leading opera houses. She was cited for developing song as an art form and presenting “long-lost” music from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Sandberg, from Stockholm, who writes under the name Max Martin, has written a string of hits for various artists, including Katy Perry, Pink and the Backstreet Boys. In the past 20 years “no composer in the world has written melodies as sustainable and widespread,” the award panel said.

The winners have been invited to collect their awards, including a cash prize of 1 million kronor (Dh440,666) each, in June.