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| Lady Gaga And Yoko |
Lady Gaga has given a peace a chance, and Yoko Ono has taken notice.
John Lennon's widow, a rock legend in her own right, presented the 21st-century pop icon with the LennonOno Grant for Peace today in Iceland. The Imagine Peace Tower, whose construction was spearheaded by Ono in honor of her late husband, was unveiledin Kollafjörður Bay in 2007.
But Gaga didn't just get her hands on a puzzle-piece-shaped trophy for her social activism and philanthropic ways—the prize is a grant after all!
"I will be donating this grant to the Elton John AIDS foundation and I will be working closely with them to ensure that the money goes specifically to those orphans and disadvantaged youth in America born with HIV or AIDS," the Fame Monster artist said of the $50,000 that comes with the honor.
In addition to launching her own Born This Way Foundation advocating more empowerment, education and acceptance among young people, Lady Gaga contributed to earthquake relief in Haiti in 2010 and tsunami relief in Japan last year.
"Lady Gaga is in a position of number one as a singer-songwriter," Ono told Reuters Television. "And when you are number one you don't want to risk yourself. And she did."
"I dare you to be compassionate in a cynical age," Gaga said in accepting the honor—which she shares this year with Pussy Riot, the imprisoned Russian punk trio who are appealing their stiff sentence for staging an anti-Vladimir Putin protest at a Moscow church.
Ono ceremonially presented the award to band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's husband in New York last month.
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