Gladys Knight arrives for the Kennedy Center honorees reception at the White House in Washington, Sunday, December 4, 2022.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Gladys Knight arrives for the Kennedy Center honorees reception at the White House in Washington, Sunday, December 4, 2022.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
WASHINGTON – Patti LaBelle sincerely praises her lifelong friend Knight Gladys. Sean Penn called U2 “four cunning Dubliners.” Ballet dancer for conductor and composer Tania Leon. Matt Damon playfully teases his friend George Clooney — a lot — while Sheryl Crow gives a heartfelt performance of “Baby Baby” to Amy Grant during the Kennedy Center Honors Sunday.
Knight, Clooney, Grant, León and U2 are held at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, annually honors a select group of people for their artistic influences on American culture. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their respective wives were in attendance, as were members of the President’s Cabinet and Congress.
An audience member from the political world — Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — drew some attention. He is recovering from a brutal attack at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home in October. The couple received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Normally performers like U2 or Knight would lead such a performance, but during the Kennedy Center event, honorees sat on the balcony and watched their peers praise them and perform their acts. their works.
On the red carpet, Clooney, accompanied by his wife Amal, joked that after seeing friends like Don Cheadle and Julia Roberts in attendance, he worried that his memorial would be more of a “barbecue.” . And it’s a bit like that, though his friends and family are clearly respectful.
Roberts set the tone by appearing on stage in a dress decorated with pictures of Clooney. After an introduction that alternates between humor and sincerity, she moves on to a set designed to look like a smoky bar — the kind that Clooney might prefer. The actor’s father, Nick Clooney, entertained the crowd with stories of little George, including a time when he was seven years old — heartbroken over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 — gave his father all his toy guns.
Damon went down the humorous route, joking about how Clooney once stole stationery from then-President Bill Clinton and wrote notes for his co-stars on it. Cheadle highlights Clooney’s charitable work. But Clooney’s father was perhaps the one with the strongest praise, telling the crowd and his son, sitting on the balcony between León and Bono of U2, “George’s most important and best work is still there. front.
Standing on a stage lit by a large sign that reads “Gladys,” LaBelle called Knight her “all,” saying they had been friends for six decades and had met through laughter and tears. “We do everything together,” says LaBelle. “It is my honor to honor you tonight.”
Actor and hip-hop star LL Cool J says that whenever Knight sings, she connects with people. He said: “I used to hear Gladys sing the ABC and I thought I was in church.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden stand with the 2022 Kennedy Center Honorees during the 45th Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, President Sunday, December 4, 2022.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden stand with the 2022 Kennedy Center Honorees during the 45th Kennedy Center Honors Ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, President Japan, December 4, 2022.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Knight — often with her backup vocalists, The Pips — has recorded dozens of albums featuring such classic hits as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Midnight Train to Georgia.” The challenge of singing that classic in front of the woman who made it famous went to country music superstar Garth Brooks, who was honored at the Kennedy Center in his own right. He cited Knight’s “country music roots” before launching the classic.
Each artist is introduced with a compilation video showing excerpts from their lives. At Grant’s, her children talk about their mother’s influence on them. Crow talks about Grant’s influence on her when she was a young college student.
“Amy also taught me that it’s possible to be funny, carefree, and Christian,” says Crow.
Five ballet dancers took to the stage to honor composer and conductor Tania León, who fled Cuba as a refugee in 1967; Her passport was stamped “Cancelado” when she left the country. The performers hail from the Harlem Dance Theater, which León helped found when she finally made her way to New York City. She also founded the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra Community Concert Series and in 2021 received a Pulitzer Prize for her work “Stride,” inspired by women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony .
“How do I convey your level of musical genius?” asked actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith. Jazz pianist Jason Moran, singer Alicia Hall Moran, and cellist Sterling Elliott played one of León’s compositions, “Oh Yemanja.”
The final honoree of the night was U2. In a video filmed on Saturday, U2 guitarist The Edge noted that a group of four “Irish boys” had been honored for their contributions to American culture and said there was a bond between the group and America is truly inexplicable.
Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder sings “Elevation” and “One” by U2. Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen brought his other self, Borat, on stage as part of a U2 tribute, pretending to mistake Biden for former President Donald Trump. Singers Brandi Carlile, Hozier and Jamala — from the United States, Ireland and Ukraine respectively — closed the show with an emotional version of “Walk On.”
U2’s Bono is also known for its charitable work in poverty alleviation and AIDS awareness. Jamala, whose native Ukraine was embroiled in nearly a year of bloody war following the Russian invasion, mentioned that history of activism when she introduced the last song of the night.
“It is fitting that on the night of their honor, they once again used their podiums to spread the message of peace. Honestly, to be here in this warm, bright hall tonight It’s really an extraordinary thing for me, to have so much darkness in my native Ukraine,” she said.
The honorees arrived at the theater from a White House reception, where Biden hailed them to a crowd in the star-studded East Room as a “special group of artists”.
“Thank you for showing us the power of art and ‘We the People,'” Biden said.
