Lady Gaga is to be awarded the prestigious John Lennon Peace Grant.

The 'Born This Way' superstar, who this week became the first Twitter user to hit 30 million followers, will receive the honour at a ceremony in Iceland on October 9th from Yoko Ono, who praised Gaga for her dedication to activism:

"Lady Gaga is one of the biggest living artists of our time. She is not only an artist, she is also an activist, using her art to bring better communication to the world.

"She is being acknowledged for her activism, and how her album 'Born This Way' has widely changed the mental map of the world. And how it has made us deal with the future world, which happens to be here already."

Pussy Riot, Rachel Corrie, John Perkins and Christopher Hitchens will also receive the honour alongside Gaga, who will donate the prize money from the grant to the Elton John AIDS Foundation charity.