Glasgow, the city of Lulu and Simple Minds and - if you believe the publicity - of Lou Reed and Felix Mendelssohn, has been anointed a World City of Music by Unesco.

The award ranks Glasgow alongside Seville in Spain and Bologna in Italy as world cities of music and establishes it among the wider world network of Creative Cities, which is endorsed by Unesco.

Civic leaders and tourism agencies welcomed the award, emphasising that it would lift Glasgow's profile at home and abroad and give a fillip both to the creative industries in the city and to tourism.

Tom Thomson, the chairman of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, said that the award would have an impact far beyond the city limits.

“This is a very valuable acknowledgement of the range and quality of music making and a signal of aspiration to music-makers in the city and elsewhere. But it is also absolutely invaluable in terms of Glasgow's tourism brand nationally and internationally, as Unesco gives a stamp of world class quality,” Mr Thomson said.

The Lord Provost of Glasgow, Bob Winter, said that he was thrilled by the award. “I am confident this can only boost our musical ambitions and encourage and nurture future musical talent,” he added.

A Creative Cities award is not the result of a competition but the outcome of a considered business plan. Glasgow's was begun last summer and supported strongly by John Wallace, the principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), Mr Thomson and James Boyle, the former controller of BBC Radio 4 and Radio Scotland. They helped to develop a 64-page document that was handed over at Unesco headquarters in Paris, in June.

The bid package stressed that the city was home to musical excellence in all genres, from classical through traditional folk to jazz and rock, and drew out venues from pubs to concert halls, establishing that the city staged 127 events every week. National companies, orchestras and schools of music were also highlighted.

Yet beyond these strong claims, the bid was nothing if not “gallus”. Where Vienna might boast Mozart and Beethoven, or Milan might claim to be the home of opera, Glasgow cited artists ancient and modern from the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, via Clare Grogan to Franz Ferdinand. Some of those name-checked in the city's bid document included New York's Mr Reed, the Move (from Birmingham) and Tom Jones (a leading Welshman), whose only significance to the bid was the fact that they had once visited Scotland's biggest city.

Others corralled into support for Glasgow included Frédéric Chopin - who, Mr Winter claimed, took his first train ride in Glasgow - and Mendelssohn, whose Fingal's Cave was cited by the Provost as a work influenced by his city.

The first city to be awarded Creative City status was Edinburgh, which became Unesco's World City of Literature in 2004. Since then an extraordinary variety of awards have been made by the organisation. Aswan in Egypt is World City of Craft and Folk Art, Popayán in Mexico the City of Gastronomy, and Berlin, Buenos Aires and Montreal are cities of Design. Melbourne was made a World City of Literature yesterday.

Mr Boyle, who played a leading role in establishing Edinburgh as a City of Literature, said that the Glasgow bid had built on some of its most obvious assets. “Glasgow has always been a City of Music. This formally recognises both that musical heritage and the flourishing contemporary scene. It will encourage all musical interests in the city to work as partners to carry our reputation forward in the coming century,” he said.

“This international recognition is part of the re-establishment of Scotland as one of the world's great cultural hubs. This country defined the concept of Creative Cities for Unesco.”

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