Lady Gaga donates peace prize to Aids charity

Performer Lady Gaga, right, poses for a photograph with Yoko Ono after receiving a Lennon Ono Grant For Peace award in Reykjavik, Tuesday, October 9, 2012. Lady Gaga was presented the award for her social activism. AP/Brynjar Gauti

REYKJAVIK—Lady Gaga said on Tuesday she would donate a peace prize given to her by artist and activist Yoko Ono to Elton John’s Aids charity.

“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 orphaned and disadvantaged youth in America born with HIV or AIDS,” she said in her acceptance speech.

The LennonOno Grant For Peace is a biennial award handed out by Yoko Ono, the widow of former Beatles star John Lennon.

Ono told AFP that she wanted to honor Gaga for her work campaigning for gay rights.

Gaga is “powerful” and “it’s great that she is using her power to do other things than just singing,” she said.

The American singer shared this year’s prize with Russian punk band Pussy Riot, the late writer Christopher Hitchens, Rachel Corrie, an activist who was killed when protesting in Gaza, and author John Perkins.

The award was established in 2002 in memory of John Lennon’s activism and is given out every two years to people working for peace. The size of the award has never been disclosed.