WASHINGTON — For soulful Amy Grant, it was about the “shared joy” of the experience.
Gladys Knight smiled and said receiving a popular cultural honor from President Joe Biden resonated deeply with her because “I feel like he’s my brother, I’ve known him for a long time.”
And George Clooney, whose arm was tight around his wife Amal’s waist, laughed when asked if being inducted into the Kennedy Center Honors made him reconsider his future in politics.
“We have a nice life,” he said, a clear — and diplomatic — “no.”
The trio, along with U2 rock legends and Pulitzer Prize-winning classical music ensemble Tanya Lyon, were honored Sunday night at the 45th Kennedy Center Honors Gala in Washington, DC.
Biden, along with First Lady Jill Biden, took their usual place in the presidential box inside the Kennedy Center Grand Opera House, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and second man Douglas Emhoff. They were joined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with her husband, Paul, who wore a black hat and black glove on his left hand as he continued to recover from the October attack at their San Francisco home.
The typical bipartisan guest list — including Senators Mitt Romney, Mike Lee, Joe Manchin, and Patrick Leahy as well as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — also includes a slew of entertainment stars recruited for the honorees.
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Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Garth Brooks, Sean Penn, Eddie Vedder, Sheryl Crowe, Brandi Carlyle, Mickey Guyton preside over a host of musicians and spoken tributes, along with two funky guests: Big Bird — who lingered on stage to edit Clooney — and Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen), whose terrible rendition of U2’s “With or Without You” ushered in a rare political turn: “Kanye” [West] Try moving to Kazakhstan [Borat’s home country] And we said no. It’s very anti-Semitic, even to us.”
The over three-hour recording will air December 28 on CBS (8pm EST/PT) and stream on Paramount+.
Here are some important moments from the event.
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Gladys Knight
“The Empress of Soul lights up everything and everyone in her orbit,” according to LL Cool J, who happily introduced a diverse group of musicians to honor Knight.
Brooks, cowboy hat steady in place as he pats his chest, closes his eyes and takes out his canoe, imbuing “Midnight Train to Georgia” with his usual heartfelt energy before Guyton dazzles in a gold dress, killing a Knight’s soaring psalm about resilience, “Best Thing That Happened to Me.” Absolutely,” her voice was sliding down the scale at the end of the song.
Ariana DeBose added a soft twist and a little Broadway vibe to “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” as she swirled around the stage with her current three-pointer. But it was Patti Labelle’s arrival that elicited a standing ovation before the R&B dynamo had a word.
“You’re my sister, my friend, my everything, for six decades,” she said, tearing up, addressing Knight. The performance culminates—fittingly—with “That’s What Friends Are For,” as Brooks, Gayton and DeBose try to get out of Labelle’s way while she pumps out the highs.
George Clooney
In a video showing honorees at a previous White House reception where they received their medals, Clooney joked that no matter where in the world he goes, everyone agrees: “He sucks like Batman.”
His sense of humor was immediately challenged when longtime friend Julia Roberts showed up to crack a smile and his trademark joke, “I’m here for Gladys Knight. Can’t you tell me?”
But Clooney has been celebrated as a Renaissance man, with Roberts calling him “the perfect combination of gentleman and playmate,” powerful jazz singer Diane Reeves blasting “How High the Moon” (as she did in Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck”) and Don Cheadle highlight Clooney’s dedication to humanitarian work.
The stage setting – a dimly lit bar – allowed surprises to go down easily as the lights wandered. His still-echoing TV voice, Clooney’s father, Nick, 88, shared his pride in his son. “He never ceased to amaze me, he never ceased to learn… George’s best and most important work is still ahead of him.”
Richard Kind, a friend of Clooney’s since the duo starred in a failed sitcom pilot 30 years ago, joked, “There isn’t a single bottle of Casamigos in this batch” — a reference to the tequila line Clooney co-founded in 2013.
After showing a video narrating Brad Pitt’s account of Clooney’s accomplishments, Damon teased “everyone’s sixth favorite Batman” and shared one of the prankster’s greatest successes: stealing President Bill Clinton’s paraphernalia and writing fake notes to the actors saying how much he loved their work.
Amy Grant
As the first Christian contemporary artist to be awarded the Kennedy Center Medal, Grant is already a pioneer. But its reach — from gospel to pop, sacred to secular — made a huge impact.
Broadway legend Chita Rivera and news personality Katie Couric surveyed Grant’s 40-plus-year career, with Couric describing her music as “the perfect elixir for troubled times and troubled souls.”
Crowe, who catapulted herself through “Baby Baby,” Grant’s mega-hit from the early ’90s that never lost a step in her spinning bounce, shared that Grant’s appearances during her college years taught her that “she could be funny, irreverent and Christian all at once.” the time “.
Singer Natalie Hemby paid tribute to Grant’s sweetness before fellow singers in The Highwomen — Carlyle, Maren Morris, and Amanda Sheris — joined her to harmoniously orchestrate “Somewhere On The Road.”
But it was the combination of “Sing Your Praise to the Lord” and “El Shaddai” that exemplified the well-balanced careers of pop and Christian singers BeBe and CeCe Winans, backed by Grant’s lifelong music partner, Michael W. Smith, on rose piano and gospel choir. Howard University alternately cooled down.
Tanya Lyon
The Cuban-born conductor, composer, and classical music aficionado’s dramatic story is one of triumph and, as shared during the ceremony, also a love story with her piano.
Leone, who left Cuba for New York City in 1967 and co-founded the Dance Theater of Harlem, became a “teacher, mentor, and educator” who “crafted moments of time inspired by art, history, and nature,” according to vocalist Alicia Hall Moran, who celebrated Leone with a song ” Oh Yemanja” with her husband Jason Moran on piano and Sterling Elliott on cello.
A percussive piano piece by Lyon—”Tombao”—was performed by Chloe Flower, accompanied by five young dancers from the Harlem Dance Theatre, but it was Lyon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Stride,” performed with Kennedy Center Honors. The orchestra and members of the Sphinx are deeply moved by the trombone’s staccato bleating and the trumpet trumpet turning it into an ominous march.
U2
Of the 244 musicians recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors, U2’s “Bad Four Tramps,” as they’re christened by Penn, are only the fifth band to earn the distinction.
Subdued But Focused Ben praised its “sonic landscape” and called it “the most relatable band in history.”
The poignant video featuring Beyoncé, Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and Phineas reciting U2’s lyrics as footage of them performing through the decades flickered across the screen was just a warm-up for Vedder storming the stage for a crushing “high.” The song unfolded as a full-throttle rock show, with pulsating red and white lights and Vedder clutching the mic stand in Bono’s favorite pose (lean forward).
Vedder returned in place of Mary J. Blige, who Penn said was ill and unable to perform, to handle “One”, the band’s biblical verse backed by a blaring beat by Carlile, joined by Hozier and Ukrainian singer Jamala, collaborating on their anthem. Hymn, “Walk On,” from U2’s breakthrough album from 2000, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.”
The song’s inspiring grit proved to be a closer show, as Gayton, Crowe, Smith, Morris, Diane Reeves and Baby Winan returned to belt as golden bursts fell from the rafters.
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