Kennedy Center Honors
President Donald Trump was elected chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., he announced on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday (Feb. 12). He replaces financier David M. Rubenstein as chair.
Deborah F. Rutter, who had served as president of the Kennedy Center since 2014, was subsequently fired from her position. Rutter had announced last month that she intended to step down at the end of 2025.
Trump’s Truth Social post read: “President Donald J. Trump was just unanimously elected Chairman of the Board of the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The President stated, ‘It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!’”
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On Monday, Trump posted on social media that he would appoint Richard Grenell, who was ambassador to Germany during the first Trump administration, as the center’s interim executive director, saying that he “shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture” and would make sure there was no more “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.”
On Wednesday, shortly after Trump was elected chairman, singer and songwriter Ben Folds said he would resign his post as an adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra, which is overseen by the Kennedy Center. “Given developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I am resigning as artistic adviser to the N.S.O. Not for me,” Folds wrote on Instagram.
The Kennedy Center oversees the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Washington National Opera, in addition to presenting theatrical shows, the Kennedy Center Honors and more.
In his first term as president, Trump broke with precedent by not attending the annual Kennedy Center Honors, something all previous presidents had done since the honors program began in 1978, minus rare cases when they were called away by urgent events. Trump also was a frequent critic of the Center’s programming.
“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday (Feb. 7).
He continued: “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture. We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP! Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”
Trump’s social media reference to “Drag Shows” appeared to be a reference to a show the center hosted last year called “Dragtastic Dress-up,” which was aimed at LGBTQ+ youth.
The Center has in recent days scrubbed its site of references to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Trump has been highly critical of such programs.
The Kennedy Center has historically been run by bipartisan boards. On Monday (Feb. 10), the Trump administration officially removed 18 board members who had been appointed by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The members removed include some of Biden’s closest aides — Karine Jean-Pierre, the former White House press secretary, and political strategist Mike Donilon — as well as artists including Grammy and Oscar winner Jon Batiste.
The board is now entirely comprised of Trump appointees, including the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles; Dan Scavino, a longtime Trump aide; and Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday (Feb. 7) that he is firing members of the board of trustees for the Kennedy Center and naming himself chairman.
He also indicated that he would be dictating programming at one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions, specifically declaring that he’d put an end to events featuring performers in drag.
Trump’s announcement came as the new president has bulldozed his way across official Washington during the first weeks of his second term, trying to shutter federal agencies, freeze spending and ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the government.
“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN. I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” Trump wrote.
“We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!”
Unlike former President Joe Biden and other commanders in chief through the decades, Trump did not attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremonies during his first term, held at the performing arts venue in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood that opened in 1971.
Shortly after Trump’s post, the Kennedy Center website began experiencing technical difficulties. Visitors got a message reading “We are experiencing high traffic” and were redirected to a “waiting room” that listed how many hundreds of people were trying to access the site ahead of them.
Trump suggested in his post that he would be implementing some changes to the center’s performance schedule, noting that last year “the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP.”
According to its website, the center in July hosted a preshow titled “A Drag Salute to Divas” and a November “Drag Brunch.”
In his post, Trump did not clarify which board of trustee members he would be terminating besides the current chairman, philanthropist David Rubenstein. The board often features political powerbrokers and major donors, and is currently made up of members from both sides of the aisle.
Rubenstein was first elected to the post in 2010 and reelected each year since that time. Also, the principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles, Rubenstein was originally appointed to the Kennedy Center board by President George W. Bush and subsequently reappointed by President Barack Obama and Biden.
The current board features Biden’s White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, as well as Mike Donilon, Biden’s longtime ally, and Stephanie Cutter, a former Obama adviser. The treasurer of the center’s board of trustees is television producer Shonda Rhimes, who hosted fundraisers for Biden before he abandoned his reelection bid last summer.
But the current board also features Trump allies, including Pam Bondi, the new president’s recently confirmed attorney general, and Lee Greenwood, whose song “God Bless the USA,” was the unofficial anthem of Trump’s presidential campaign.
During his first term in 2019, Trump announced that he was tapping actor Jon Voight, a longtime supporter, to the board, along with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who he’s picked as U.S. ambassador to Israel this time.
Deborah F. Rutter, who has served as president of the Kennedy Center since 2014, has announced her decision to step down at the end of this year. The Center’s board of trustees has formed a search committee to identify her successor.
“After more than 10 extraordinary years in Washington, D.C., collaborating with some of the most phenomenal artists, cultural leaders, diplomats, philanthropists, volunteers, and administrators, I have come to believe it is time to pass the torch,” Rutter said in a statement.
“Deborah’s visionary leadership has transformed the Kennedy Center,” said Kennedy Center board chairman David M. Rubenstein (who will continue to lead the board through September 2026, the Center announced in November). “Her legacy will be the Center’s increased relevance, visibility, and physical footprint.”
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Throughout her tenure, Rutter has expanded programming to represent the diversity of arts in America, most notably introducing hip-hop culture and social impact as two central areas of programming.
Under Rutter’s leadership, the Kennedy Center has grown its operating budget (expenses) to $268 million. Earned revenues have grown to $125 million, in addition to $95 million in contributed funds; $45 million in federal appropriations for the operation, maintenance and improvement of the memorial; and a $4 million draw from the endowment in fiscal year 2024.
In her first year, Rutter broke ground on a transformative arts facility and first-ever campus expansion, the REACH. After successfully delivering on a $250 million capital campaign raised entirely through private contributions, the REACH opened in September 2019.
As part of the Center’s 50th anniversary season, Rutter oversaw the development of “Arts & Ideals: President John F. Kennedy,” an immersive, permanent 7,500 square-foot exhibit exploring President Kennedy’s connection to arts and culture. Since its opening in September 2022, the JFK exhibit has welcomed nearly 1 million visitors.
Programs that evolved under Rutter’s leadership include Sound Health (Network), a collaboration with artistic advisor Renée Fleming exploring the neurological and health benefits of music. In 2024, the Center introduced its new Arts & Wellbeing series, reflecting the full spectrum of the arts and their impact on mind, body, and soul. This spring, the Kennedy Center will present “Earth to Space: Arts Breaking the Sky,” which will explore humans’ ambitions to navigate space.
The Kennedy Center serves as the home to the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and Washington National Opera (WNO). With more than 2,000 performances each year — and two major televised awards shows, the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor — the Center attracts 1.5 million ticketholders and more than 2 million visitors annually. Rutter has also guided the Center’s global network of more than 40 education initiatives, making it the nation’s largest provider of arts education by reaching more than 2.1 million individuals. She is also credited with landing Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda as the NSO’s music director in 2016.
Honoring the Grateful Dead without including co-founder Jerry Garcia, which the Kennedy Centers Honors program is doing this year, would be like honoring Earth, Wind & Fire without including Maurice White. Oh wait – the Kennedy Center did that too, in 2019, when they honored three members of the groundbreaking R&B group, but not its principal architect.
It’s not that the Kennedy Center is unaware of what a crucial role Garcia and White played in those groups. It’s just that they reserve their honors for artists who are living. Garcia died in 1995, 29 years before the group was chosen for the Kennedy Center Honors. White died in 2016, three years before EWF got the nod.
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This year’s Kennedy Center Honors were presented on Sunday Dec. 8 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. The show, hosted by Queen Latifah, will air on CBS on Sunday Dec. 22 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT.
The members of Grateful Dead who are being honored are drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, bass guitarist Phil Lesh and rhythm guitarist Bobby Weir. Lesh died on Oct. 25, three months after this year’s honorees were announced. (The Kennedy Center allows posthumous inductions if the honorees were selected before they died.)
Two other groups received Kennedy Center Honors without key members who had died by the time the groups were included. The Who was honored in 2008, but without drummer Keith Moon, who died in 1978, or bassist John Entwistle, who died in 2002. Led Zeppelin were honored in 2012, but drummer John Bonham, who died in 1980, was not posthumously included.
The Kennedy Center Honors’ site makes plain that the awards “provide recognition to living individuals (emphasis added) who throughout their lifetimes have made significant contributions to American culture through the performing arts.” (Here’s a link to the site’s list of previous inductees.)
Eagles were selected for the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015, but founding member Glenn Frey was too ill to attend, so the honor was postponed one year. By that time, Frey had died, but the Center included him as a recipient anyway – on the grounds that the group was selected before he died. I’ll take it, but a better reason to honor him would have been that he co-founded the genre-bridging group with Don Henley and it wouldn’t have been what it was without him.
Mercifully, all four members of U2 were alive when the band received the honors in 2022. So were both members of The Nicholas Brothers, a popular dance duo of the 1930s to the 1950s. But if one of them had passed away, should that have precluded them from receiving the honor?
The Beatles, the GOAT of all pop and rock groups, are conspicuous by their absence on the roster of Kennedy Center Honors recipients. Paul McCartney was honored as an individual in 2010. A century from now, people looking over the list of Kennedy Center Honors recipients will find it strange that McCartney was honored but the group in which he did his best and most lasting work was not. Why haven’t they been? John Lennon died in 1980, followed by George Harrison in 2001. Their deaths are tragic losses, but why should those deaths keep the group from receiving an award it undisputably deserves?
Bee Gees were never honored. Instead, Barry Gibb got a solo nod in 2023, after the deaths of his brothers Maurice in 2003 and Robin in 2012. Even Barry Gibb would probably say it would have made more sense for him to be saluted alongside his brothers. Almost all of their successes as recording artists were as a unit.
The Beach Boys were never honored. Instead, Brian Wilson got a solo nod in 2007. He was unquestionably the group’s resident genius, but the quintet was one of the most iconic American groups of all time. Unfortunately, Wilson’s brother Dennis died in 1983, followed by Carl in 1998.
There are a few cases where it’s debatable whether it would have made more sense to honor an individual or the entire group. The Kennedy Center honored R&B great Mavis Staples in 2016. Two other members of The Staple Singers had died by that point – Pops Staples (in 2000) and Cleotha Staples (in 2013). In similar fashion, Gladys Knight was honored in 2022. Two other members of the mighty Gladys Knight & the Pips had died at that point – Edward Patten (in 2005) and William Guest (in 2015). There are arguments to be made on both sides about whether it made more sense to honor Staples and Knight as individuals or with the groups in which they had most of their greatest successes, but the fact that group members had died should not be the deciding factor.
When the Kennedy Center Honors finally get around to The Rolling Stones (and what are they waiting for?) it would be nice if they included drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. Other groups that are (or should be) on their list of future inductees which have both living and dead members include Fleetwood Mac, Chicago, Pink Floyd and Queen.
It’s a sad fact of life that artists die. But with our greatest artists, their work lives on. The Kennedy Center should modify its rules so all key members of groups and duos are honored, whether they’re still living at the time of their inductions or have taken their final earthly bows.
The Kennedy Center Honors has become perhaps the most prestigious honor in American arts and entertainment. Who they choose to honor matters. That’s why they should take a close look at this limiting policy.
If they start to honor group members who have died, should they also change their rules and honor individuals who have died – maybe one per year? I certainly wouldn’t object. They could start with Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby, who died in 1977, the year before the Kennedy Center Honors got underway. And they could catch up to some other great artists they missed, including Prince, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Burt Bacharach.
This year’s other honorees, in addition to the Dead, are Bonnie Raitt, jazz musician Arturo Sandoval; director and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; and The Apollo, which will receive a special Honors as an iconic American institution.
Brandi Carlile’s solo career is going pretty well by any measure, but she has a dream about expanding into her own supergroup, she revealed to Billboard on the red carpet at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night (Dec. 8), where she helped honor Bonnie Raitt. “I’ve got this plan — I’ve been hitting […]
Shakedown Street wound its way to the nation’s capital on Sunday (Dec. 8) as counterculture mingled with high arts culture at the 47th Kennedy Center Honors, where legendary rockers the Grateful Dead; blues rock songstress and guitarist Bonnie Raitt; acclaimed filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; and jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer Arturo Sandoval were inducted.
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In a first, the Honors this year inducted a venue, Harlem’s fabled The Apollo, in celebration of nine decades of the theater championing Black artists and culture.
The gala continues to elevate its unique mashup of celebrities, politicians and arts patrons—fun fact: former speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is still in possession of a button from a late-‘80s Dead show—and the outgoing Administration was out in full force. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff received extended applause.
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Musical star power included Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow, Maggie Rogers, Dave Matthews, Queen Latifah, Leon Bridges, James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Don Was, Sturgill Simpson, The War and Treaty, Jackson Browne, Trombone Shorty, Doug E Fresh, Raye, Grace VanderWaal and Keb Mo.
Non-musical talent was equally sparkling. Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Al Pacino and Laurence Fishburne were among those who feted Coppola, while Letterman, Miles Teller and Chloe Sevigny shared their personal connections to the Dead. Julia Louis Dreyfus celebrated Raitt, and Dave Chappelle paid hilarious homage to The Apollo.
Bonnie RaittWinner of 13 Grammys, including a best song award in 2023 when her soul-stirring “And Just Like That” beat out songs by Beyonce and Harry Styles among others, Raitt was lauded as much for her activism as for her vocals and killer moves on the slide guitar.
“As you get older you reflect on how you got where you got and that’s not just in your career but life, and I attribute a lot to Bonnie,” Crow shared with Billboard before the show.
She recounted seeing Raitt perform for the first time and buying her first guitar the next day. “When you’re a 17-year-old girl and you play piano, and you go see Bonnie Raitt and she’s ripping and she’s fronting a guy band and she’s singing truth… I would never have picked up a guitar or seen myself being out front had it not been for her,” Crowe said.
Raitt’s work in social justice has been a north star for Carlile, among so many others. “I’ve lucky enough to get talk to Bonnie for hours and hours about activism and the ways we get to carry ourselves as musicians and artists,” she said on the red carpet.
“I was maybe 17 years old at a Bonnie Raitt concert when a ‘No Nukes’ guitar pick landed on the toe of my shoe, and I picked that up and I found out what she meant by that. I carry all of her messages forward. The work she’s done for Indigenous people, for women’s rights… she’s so outspoken and so musically powerful. Everything she says is backed by a thunderstorm of conviction.”
On stage and accompanied on piano by Crow, Carlile delivered an earnest rendition of “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” while Emmylou Harris and Dave Mathews stirred the heartstrings with their take on “Angel From Montgomery,” on which Raitt famously dueted with songwriter John Prine. Julia Louis Dreyfus praised Raitt’s authenticity, noting: “You know it’s Bonnie. It’s all red hair and no bullshit.” Jackson Browne, who noted his friend of 50 years “never stopped growing and expanding herself and her impulses as an artist,” before joining Crow, James Taylor and Arnold McCuller to croon “Nick of Time,” the title track from Raitt’s 1990 album that took home a Grammy album of the year.
Arturo SandovalSandoval, renowned for blending Afro-Cuban jazz, bebop and straight-ahead jazz, performed in 1990 at the Honors tribute to his mentor Dizzy Gillespie. He embraced his turn in the spotlight by treating his fellow honorees and other guests at the White House dinner the evening before the gala with a spicy rendition of “God Bless America.” And well-wishers including Andy Garcia, Debbie Allen, Chris Botti and Cimafunk returned the favor on stage.
Fellow Cuban-born Garcia, who played Sandoval in the 2000 docudrama “For Love or Country,” peppered Sandoval’s string of accomplishments—winning four Grammys, five Latin Grammys and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, among them—with personal narratives: “He let me play in his band, but only if I brought the sandwiches.”
Allen described her relationship with Sandoval as a “lifelong creative marriage” that began at the Kennedy Center in 1996, and Botti described Sandoval as “the trumpet master” before he put his own trumpet stylings to a stirring version of Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.”
The ApolloThe Apollo served as the launching pad for artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross and Lauryn Hill, and Queen Latifah brought the audience through its decades of evolution.
Husband and wife duo The War and Treaty performed a gorgeous medley of hits by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, while Savion Glover performed a high-spirited tap dance routine.
Comedian Chappelle recounted his first, horrifying experience performing at Amateur Night after winning a contest when he was just 15. “Everybody started booing. It was like I was outside my body watching,” he said, before waxing sincere. “My favorite part of freedom is art. The Apollo theater is a church where we could talk like ourselves, to ourselves.”
Francis Ford CoppolaCoppola’s segment was, in a word, legendary. The tribute to the five-time Oscar winner, whose anthology includes The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, American Graffiti and Patton, brought out Hollywood heavy-hitters Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and Laurence Fishburne.
His sister Talia Shire, nephew Jason Schwartzman and granddaughter Gia Coppola also shared tributes and Grace VanderWaal, who appears in Coppola’s new film Megalopolis, performed a raspy, rousing version of “The Impossible Dream.”
Pacino mixed heart and humor, noting Coppola continues to break the cardinal rule in Hollywood: never invest in your own films. “For Apocalypse Now, he put up his house, with his wife and three kids in it. I know, I was there,” he quipped.
Noting without Coppola he wouldn’t have his career, DeNiro—whom the filmmaker cast in “The Godfather: Part II”—said, “And it’s not just me. Francis generously brings all of us into his family, into his world, into his dreams. And what dreams they are. Beautiful. Epic. Impossible.”
After sharing a few funny anecdotes, Scorsese compared his friend to visionary early pioneers of cinema because “he reinvents, he has the same spirit they had and constantly, time and time again, film after film and decade after decade, he reinvents, always expanding into new territory.”
The Grateful DeadAt 60 years and still truckin’, the Grateful Dead—whose original members Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bobby Weir were in attendance—is mythological in its organic cultivation of community and the live show experience.
“The Grateful Dead was a dance band, and people like to dance and in those days there weren’t a lot of people dancing so that’s where the community started and the music just moved from there,” Hart told Billboard. “And we grew with the music.”
Weir broke it down like this: “We had no plan, we had no itinerary. We were just playing; that’s all we’ve ever done. Our entire agenda has been, Let’s make some more music.”
Pre-show, Maggie Rogers shared how her stint playing with Dead & Company in 2019 at Madison Square Garden completely changed her touring routine. “Before, I was playing basically the same set every night—and there’s a beautiful meditation in that repetition—but since then, I have my whole catalog on fridge magnets on the bus and we’re constituting a new set list every night. They showed me what it’s like to relax into the continence of your own musicianship.”
The presence of guitarist, songwriter and vocalist Jerry Garcia, who died in 1995, and bass player Phil Lesh, who died in October, was palpable throughout the evening. Lesh’s son Graham said pre-show his father had been excited when he learned about the band’s induction and “it was a great chance for the band to connect and revel in how much of an honor this was. It’s kind-of a big wow, what they accomplished.”
Graham Lesh was part of a stellar jam band that also included Don Was and Sturgill Simpson, backing four tunes that got some in the house up on their feet. Rogers and Leon Bridges dueted on “Fire on the Mountain,” Simpson sung “Ripple,” Matthews and Tedeschi grooved through “Sugaree,” and then all came together for show closer “Not Fade Away,” a nod to the band’s use of the Buddy Holly paean to enduring love to wrap countless shows.
Done+Dusted returned for a third year as executive producer, in association with ROK Productions. The special will air on Dec. 22 on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
Queen Latifah, who was a 2023 Kennedy Center Honors recipient, is set to host the 2024 ceremony, which will be taped on Sunday, Dec. 8, and will air on CBS two weeks later on Dec. 22. It is Latifah’s first time as host. She joins a short list of previous or future Kennedy Center Honorees […]
Last week, the Apollo theater in Harlem was selected as the first venue to receive a Kennedy Center Honor. The Apollo will receive a special award as an iconic American institution, right alongside the four individuals who are being honored — Bonnie Raitt; Grateful Dead; jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer Arturo Sandoval; and filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.
The prestigious honors will be presented on Dec. 8 at a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. CBS will broadcast the two-hour program on Dec. 23.
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“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,” Kennedy Center chairman David M. Rubenstein said in a statement announcing the surprise selection.
This is a rare occasion that the Kennedy Center Honors has veered from its usual practice of honoring individuals. Six years ago, the program honored four key creators of the Broadway sensation Hamilton: An American Musical (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Alex Lacamoire, and Andy Blankenbuehler). Five years ago, it honored the legendary children’s TV program Sesame Street (the award was presented to the show’s creators, Lloyd Morrisett and Joan Ganz Cooney).
It’s easy to see why the Kennedy Center chose the Apollo to receive this honor. For 90 years, The Apollo has been a beacon of the Harlem community; a platform for artists from the worlds of jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul, and hip-hop. Artists who have played The Apollo’s famed Amateur Night include Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, H.E.R., D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill and Miri Ben-Ari.
Now that The Apollo has gotten the nod, what other venues would you like the Kennedy Center Honors to consider for recognition? Here are 20 choices, in alphabetical order:
Which venue should the Kennedy Center Honors consider for recognition next?
This morning’s announcement that the Grateful Dead will receive the Kennedy Center Honors in December is the latest sign that that the Kennedy Center has finally gotten the memo – In music, sometimes people do their best and most lasting work in groups.
The Kennedy Center Honors was set up in 1978 to honor individuals. It wasn’t until 2008 that the Center recognized its first musical group: The Who. Before that, they had singled out the most famous member of a group or duo for honors – Paul Simon (2002), Tina Turner (2005), Smokey Robinson (2006), Diana Ross (2007) and Brian Wilson (2007).
Even after 2008, the Kennedy Center often opted to single out a member of a group rather than honor the entire group. The Beatles should certainly have been honored by the Kennedy Center, but the Center selected Paul McCartney for a solo honor in 2002. (McCartney was unable to attend that year due to a family commitment and was finally honored in 2010.)
Other group members who were honored as individuals instead of as part of the groups with which they first achieved fame are Carlos Santana (2013), Sting (2014), Mavis Staples (2016), Gloria Estefan (2017), Lionel Richie (2017), Cher (2018), Gladys Knight (2022) and Barry Gibb (2023). In some cases, it made more sense to honor the individuals. In other cases, it made less sense. Even Barry Gibb would doubtless say that his best and most lasting work was done in the Bee Gees alongside his brothers Robin and Maurice.
Both of Gibb’s brothers had died by 2023, and the Kennedy Center generally doesn’t honor people posthumously — though it made an exception for Glenn Frey, who had died by the time the Eagles were honored in December 2016. (He was alive when the group was selected in 2015. Miranda Lambert performed the Eagles classic “Desperado” on the 2015 show as a mini-tribute.)
The rule about not honoring group members posthumously needs review. To honor Earth, Wind & Fire, as the Kennedy Center did in 2016, without honoring its mastermind Maurice White is hard to fathom. Likewise, to honor Grateful Dead without recognizing its principal songwriter and lead guitarist Jerry Garcia just seems off.
This year’s other honorees are Bonnie Raitt; jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer Arturo Sandoval; filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; and the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, which is the first venue to be honored.
Here’s a complete list of the groups that have been received Kennedy Center Honors, together with the dates they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and that they received lifetime achievement awards from the Recording Academy.
The Who (2008)
Image Credit: Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images
The 2024 Kennedy Center Honors will feature a mix of the psychedelic and the soulful with a touch of jazz. The John F. Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts announced the selections for this year’s 47th annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements on Thursday (July 18), a list that includes director Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather), jam godfathers the Grateful Dead, blues singer/guitarist Bonnie Raitt, jazz trumpeter/pianist/composer Arturo Sandoval and, in a first, The Apollo theater in Harlem in a special honor as an iconic American Institution.
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“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 M. Rubenstein in a statement about the event that will take place in Washington, D.C. on December 8 and air on CBS (and later stream on Paramount+).
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Rubenstein continued, ““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-plus 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.”
The Kennedy Center Honors celebrates individuals whose unique contributions to American arts and culture at an event where the the honorees are seated in the box tier of the Kennedy Center Opera House while their peers pay homage with performances and tributes.
In a statement, Raitt said, “I am deeply honored and thrilled to have been chosen to receive one of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors. I have long been an admirer of the awards and have been so blessed to be able to participate in several shows honoring others. There is no higher level of esteem nor as delightful a celebration and I want to extend my sincere thanks to all who have chosen me to receive this honor. I look forward to the upcoming ceremony and festivities, which I know will be one of my life’s peak experiences.”
The Dead’s living members — Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bobby Weir — were equally effusive in their excitement about receiving one of the nation’s highest artistic honors. “It goes without saying that the Kennedy Center Honors represents the highest of reaches for artistic achievement,” they wrote in a joint statement. “To be recognized alongside the artists who have in the past received this honor is beyond humbling. The Grateful Dead has always been about community, creativity, and exploration in music and presentation. We’ve always felt that the music we make embodies and imparts something beyond the notes and phrases being played — and that is something we are privileged to share with all who are drawn to what we do — so it also must be said that our music belongs as much to our fans, the Dead Heads, as it does to us. This honor, then, is as much theirs as ours.”
They continued, “From our earliest days in San Francisco and as far as our tours have taken us, it has been and still is an incredible ride. We’ve had the opportunity to play with many talented musicians, interact with many gifted people—and to be part of something much larger than ourselves. Our music has always been about exploration and breaking through or finding our way around barriers, not just musically but also in bringing people together. The energy, the love, the connection and sharing — once again, that’s what it’s all about. As we enter our 60th year of the Grateful Dead’s journey in 2025, we’re beyond grateful for this recognition and for the journey we are on together. This honor reminds us of all those moments and the people who helped us along the way. Thank you, Kennedy Center, and to all the folks who had a hand in bringing us here, for this incredible honor.”
Sandoval, too, said he was “profoundly humbled and deeply honored” to be selected as a recipient of the prestigious award. “This recognition is an extraordinary milestone in my career and a testament to the support and encouragement I have received from my family, friends, colleagues, and fans,” said Sandoval. “Throughout my journey, I have strived to create, perform, and inspire with passion and integrity. Being acknowledged by such an esteemed institution validates my efforts and motivates me to continue pushing the boundaries of my art. I am incredibly grateful to the Kennedy Center for this honor, and I look forward to contributing further to the vibrant cultural tapestry that the Center celebrates and nurtures. Thank you once again for this incredible honor.”
Michelle Ebanks, president/CEO of Harlem’s legendary Apollo — which over its long history has hosted everyone from Josephine Baker and Count Basie to James Brown, B.B. King, Bob Marley, Sam Cooke and Michael Jackson , among many others — also said her organization was elated by the first-time honor for an institution.
“We are thrilled to be the first organization honored in the history of the Kennedy Center Awards, emphasizing The Apollo’s impact on the past, present, and future of American culture and the performing arts,” Ebanks said. “From the longest-running talent show in America with Amateur Night at The Apollo, which launched the careers of icons like Ella Fitzgerald and Lauryn Hill, to performances from beloved legends like Smokey Robinson and Lil’ Kim and today’s biggest stars like Drake, The Apollo has always been a home for artists to create and a home for audiences to see incredible music and art from legendary artists.”
Last year’s honorees included Queen Latifah, Dionne Warwick, the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb, comedian Billy Crystal and soprano Renée Fleming.
To learn more about this year’s honorees click here.