Lady GaGa was feted during a ceremony taking place in Reykjavik, Iceland on October 9, the day that would have been John Lennon's 72nd birthday. The Mother Monster was handed LennonOno Grant for Peace by Yoko Ono in memory of the late member of The Beatles.
She was applauded for her tireless effort to support LGBT community. "She is not only an artist, she is also an activist, using her art to bring better communication to the world," Yoko said, acknowledging that "her album 'Born This Way' has widely changed the mental map of the world."
GaGa herself said, "I'm supremely honored to accept this grant and award today on behalf of youth empowerment around the world. 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."
She also recalled her childhood of living just a few blocks from Yoko in New York and finding inspiration from the famous family. "When I turned 19, I got [a peace sign] tattoo to remind me that if ever I was to gain the attention of the critical mass, even in an exponentially smaller way than John had, that I would commit myself to breeding compassion from my voice," she remembered.
On Twitter, the singer wrote, "Thank you @yokoono now i can do more, because of you." She also posted a picture of her holding the LennonOno prize, "Today was happiest day i've ever had. Here's me with my LennonOno Peace Prize. Yoko says, its a piece of the sky." On top of that, she wished Sean Lennon a happy birthday. He turned 37 on Tuesday.
A month ago, Yoko gave the same prize to the members of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, who were jailed for voicing their protest in a "punk prayer" against Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. The award was accepted by Tolokonnikova's husband in New York City.
Other recipients of this year's LennonOno Grant for Peace were Christopher Hitchens, the late journalist and controversial author of "God Is Not Great"; John Perkins, the activist and writer of bestselling expose "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"; and Rachel Corrie, a peace activist who died on the Gaza strip in 2003.
One day before the ceremony, GaGa dropped by the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to meet WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. She informed her Little Monsters about the visit by posting a picture of her hanging out with the controversial journalist who took asylum at the embassy. She was in the city to launch her perfume, Fame, at Harrods.
"If ur at harrods today, come visit Assange at the Ecuador embassy across the st. im there. Ill bring TEA and CAKE," M.I.A. tweeted to GaGa. It's unclear whether the female rapper, who's an avid supporter of Assange, did join the twosome though.
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