Gladys Knight, U2, and George Clooney performed at the Kennedy Center Honors
Amy Grant and Tania León were also honored at this year’s event, where Julia Roberts set the tone by coming out onstage with a dress emblazoned with photos of Clooney all over it.
a sincere Gladys Knight was hailed by Patti LaBelle, a friend for life. During Sunday’s Kennedy Center Honors, Sheryl Crow thanked her fellow singer Amy Grant and sang a moving performance of “Baby Baby” while Matt Damon playfully mocked his pal George Clooney a lot.
At the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Knight, Clooney, and Grant received recognition; this year’s class also included trailblazing composer and conductor Tania León and the rock band U2. The Kennedy Center recognizes a select number of individuals each year for their contributions to American culture via the arts. Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, and their wives were present.
Clooney and his wife Amal joked on the red carpet before the Kennedy Center performance that they were concerned his homage might end up being more of a “roast” because friends Don Cheadle and Julia Roberts would be there. It was also somewhat of a roast for Clooney, despite the apparent respect shown by his friends and family.
Longtime buddy Roberts created the mood by entering the stage wearing a frock covered in images of Clooney. Following an introductory speech that veered between humor and emotion, she switched to a set made to resemble a smoky tavern that Clooney could adore. The gathering was entertained by stories told by the actor’s father about a young George, including the time the 7-year-old was devastated over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 — gave his father all his toy guns.
Damon took the funny road, joking about how Clooney once stole then-President Bill Clinton’s stationery and wrote notes to fellow actors on it. Cheadle highlighted Clooney’s philanthropic work.
LaBelle referred to Knight as her “everything,” claiming that they had been friends for 60 years and had experienced both laughter and sadness together. LaBelle remarked, “We work together on everything. I am privileged to recognize you tonight.
According to actor and hip-hop icon LL Cool J, anytime Knight sings, she connects with the audience. He recalled hearing Gladys sing the ABCs and believing he was in church.
Knight’s legendary song “Midnight Train to Georgia” was performed by country music icon Garth Brooks, who cited Knight’s “roots in country music.”
Grant’s most well-known song, “Baby Baby,” was performed by Crow as seasoned news anchor Katie Couric discussed how young Grant was when she was discovered.
The honorees came to the theater from a White House reception where Biden praised them before a star-studded East Room crowd as an “exceptional group of artists.”
“Thank you for showing us the power of the arts and ‘We the People,’” Biden said.
He highlighted Clooney’s on-camera work and offscreen charity endeavors, from helping 9/11 victims’ families to supporting a gun control campaign led by the survivors of the Parkland school shooting.
“He is unrelenting and undaunted,” Biden said. “That is a character in real life. And that is George Clooney.”
Biden hailed Grant’s voice as “a true gift from God that she shares with everyone,” thanked León for “breathing new sounds into the soul of the nation,” and said he has all of Knight’s songs on his iPhone.
“We’re going to get on that midnight train,” Biden said of Knight. “Because I speak for all Americans when I say we’d rather live in your world than be without you in ours.”
Biden, noting his love of Irish poets, called U2 “four sons of Ireland, poets in their own right” whose music “has changed the world.”
“We would do well to remember today at a moment when there’s too much hate, too much anger, too much division here in America, and quite frankly, around the world,” Biden said. “We have to remember today, as their song goes: ‘We are one but we’re not the same. We get to carry each other.’”
U2 has earned 22 Grammy Awards and sold 170 million albums. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Pride (In the Name of Love),” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” are a few of the band’s legendary singles. Additionally well-known for his charitable efforts to fight AIDS and end poverty is lead vocalist Bono.
Before acting in films like Three Kings, Ocean’s Eleven (and Twelve and Thirteen), O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and this year’s Ticket to Paradise, Clooney rose to fame on the television program ER.
When Knight was only 16 years old, she formed a band with family members that would later become known as Gladys Knight & the Pips, and in 1960 they released their debut album. Since then, she recorded dozens of albums with such classic hits as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Midnight Train to Georgia.”
Grant is well known for crossover pop hits like “Every Heartbeat” and “That’s What Love Is For.” She’s sold more than 30 million albums, including her 1991 record “Heart in Motion,” which introduced her to a larger pop audience.
León admitted that when the Kennedy Center first contacted her, she wasn’t anticipating “something amazing” in an interview after the honorees were revealed. Since she was hired to write the music for a play in 1980, she has collaborated with the Kennedy Center multiple times throughout the years.
However, the 79-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner admitted that she was taken aback when she found out that this time, the ceremony will be in honor of her.
León fled Cuba in 1967 and finally made his way to New York City. She founded the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series as well as the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
The Kennedy Center Honors will air on CBS and online on December 28 at 8 p.m. on CBS and stream on demand on Paramount+.