The Kennedy Center has found the honorees for the 47th installment of The Kennedy Center Honors.
Director Francis Ford Coppola; rock band The Grateful Dead; singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt; and jazz composer, trumpeter and pianist Arturo Sandoval will be feted at this year’e event, with The Apollo Theater in Harlem set to receive special honors “as an iconic American institution.”
The President of the United States typically serves as the host of the event at Washington D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a tradition that President Biden has upheld while in office. Last year’s honorees for the 46th installment of the event included Billy Crystal, Queen Latifah, Dionne Warwick, Barry Gibb and Renée Fleming. Previous honorees have included George Clooney, U2, Lorne Michaels and many others.
The Kennedy Center Honors will be handed out on Dec. 8, and will be broadcast on CBS Dec. 23. CBS has televised all 46 installments of the awards, stretching back to 1978.
“The Kennedy Center Honors recognizes artists who have made an extraordinary impact on the cultural life of our nation and continue to have an immeasurable influence on new generations,” said Kennedy Center chairman David N. Rubenstein in a statement. “A brilliant and masterful storyteller with an unrelenting innovative spirit, Francis Ford Coppola’s films have become embedded in the very idea of American culture; a social and cultural phenomenon since 1965, the Grateful Dead’s music has never stopped being a true American original, while inspiring a fan culture like no other; Bonnie Raitt has made us love her again and again with her inimitable voice, slide guitar, and endless musical range encompassing blues, R&B, country rock, and folk; “an ambassador of both music and humanity,” Arturo Sandoval transcended literal borders coming from Cuba 30+ years ago and today continues to bridge cultures with his intoxicating blend of Afro Cuban rhythms and modern jazz; and on its 90th anniversary, The Apollo, one of the most consequential, influential institutions in history, has elevated the voices of Black entertainment in New York City, nationally, and around the world, and launched the careers of legions of artists.”
