Yoko Ono awards peace prize to Lady Gaga

Iceland - Lady Gaga was awarded a peace prize by Yoko Ono in a ceremony in Iceland earlier this week.

Peace activist Ono said the LennonOno Grant for Peace, established in the name of her late husband former Beatle John Lennon, rewarded Lady Gaga for combining stardom with activism and changing "the mental map" of the world.

"Lady Gaga is in a position of number one as a singer songwriter. And when you are number one you don't want to risk yourself. And she did," Ono said during the ceremony.

'I dare you to be compassionate'

Grammy-winning Lady Gaga who shot to fame with her debut album The Fame in 2008 accepted the puzzle-shaped award in Reykjavik, Iceland along with a monetary prize that she said she will give to the Elton John AIDS Foundation

Gaga said she would continue to "communicate compassionately to the world and its leaders," and dedicated the award to "youth empowerment around the world."

"I dare you to be compassionate in a cynical age," she added.

Pussy Riot also awarded

Last month, at an event in New York City, Yoko Ono awarded the prize to the members of Pussy Riot. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to two years in jail in Russia for staging a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral.

Tolokonnikova's husband accepted the grant on behalf of the three women.

This year's winners of the prize also included peace activist Rachel Corrie, killed on the Gaza strip in 2003, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man author John Perkins and the late journalist Christopher Hitchens.