Dolly Parton is the 2024 recipient of the PEACE Through Music Award, which honors an American music business skilled, artist or group who has performed a useful position in cross-cultural exchanges and whose music works to advance peace and mutual understanding globally. The award is introduced collectively by the Recording Academy and the U.S. State Department.

Parton, a 10-time Grammy winner who additionally acquired a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2011, will likely be celebrated on Friday (Oct. 25) on the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. She won’t be in attendance, however despatched a video acceptance.

“To say that I was honored to accept the PEACE Through Music Award from the Recording Academy and the U.S. State Department would be putting it mildly,” Parton mentioned. “I was very touched and moved by that. If I have been an inspiration in any way through some act of kindness or through some music that I have written, well, that makes me feel like I have done my job properly. Thanks again for such a great honor.”

Parton’s dedication to serving others is well-known. Parton’s Imagination Library, which gives underserved youngsters the chance to be taught by way of studying, stretches from the hills of Appalachia to the outback of Australia. In addition, she has been a champion of public well being, most just lately across the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Over the course of her career, Dolly Parton has been committed to enriching communities across the globe, and it’s a privilege to celebrate her dedication to service with the PEACE Through Music Award today,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, mentioned in an announcement. “We are grateful to partner with the Department of State on the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, which represents an important part of the Academy’s work to support music people across the globe.”

“Dolly Parton represents the best of America – her excellence in music, her servant’s heart in giving back to those in need, and her unique ability to always bring people together,” mentioned Lee Satterfield, Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. “On behalf of the American people and Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken, we are honored to celebrate all of her contributions to people around the world with the PEACE Through Music Award in partnership with the Recording Academy.”

The PEACE Through Music Award is set by way of a nomination course of, with U.S. embassies across the globe submitting nominations to be thought-about by a range committee created collectively by the State Department and Recording Academy. The committee contains Recording Academy members, U.S. Department of State management, music business professionals, and academia. The beneficial honorees are authorized by the CEO of the Recording Academy, then introduced to the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, who makes the ultimate choice. 

The award is a part of the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, which was introduced by the Recording Academy and the State Department in 2023. The initiative is designed to raise music as a world diplomatic platform that promotes peace, expands financial fairness, elevates inventive economies, ensures societal alternative, and will increase entry to training worldwide. The initiative was developed pursuant to the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act, which was championed by the Recording Academy and its members in 2022 at its annual Grammys on the Hill and Music Advocacy Day occasions, ensuing within the laws being handed into regulation in December 2022.

Tonight’s Grammy Museum occasion additionally acknowledges the first-ever cohort of the American Music Mentorship Program, which happened in Los Angeles from Oct. 15-25.