Washington, DC — The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in the United States, which presents the annual Grammy Awards for music, will present its 2003 MusiCares Person of the Year award to Bono, leader of the Irish band U2.

The award ceremony is scheduled for February 21 in New York, two days before the 45th annual Grammy Awards.

Since releasing its first recording in 1980, U2 has sold 100 million albums and won 14 Grammy Awards. The group has taken the Record of the Year awards at the last two Grammy ceremonies. The UK Music magazine Q recently named Bono the most powerful person in the music business.

Bono has spent much of the last three years using his fame to call attention to famine, the crushing burden of debt borne by poor countries, and the crisis of HIV/Aids, particularly in Africa. In a May interview with allAfrica.com, Bono attributed his interest in Africa, in part, to a painful part of Irish history. "If there is such a thing as folk memory," he said, he may be influenced by "a sense that our country had a famine in the middle of the 19th century that halved our population," killing two million people and making refugees of another two million.

Recording Academy chair Garth Fundis called Bono a "gifted and dedicated visionary," saying that "his musical accomplishments are matched only by his endeavors to effect positive change on the human condition worldwide."