Gladys Knight performed in 2021 in honor of the Kennedy Center and performed his song “Weekly Bee Free” in honor of one of the winners, Garth Brooks. But when she returns to the Kennedy Performing Arts Center in December this year, she will play another role. She sits on the balcony and wears a medal that designates her as one of the five winners of the year.
Respected R & B, pop and soul artist Knight describes her perceptions by the Kennedy Center:
She will be celebrated with actor and filmmaker George Clooney at the 45th Kennedy Center Honorary Gala on December 4th. Amy Grant, a modern Christian singer-songwriter. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania Leon and band U2.
As always, making choices was a challenge, said Deborah F. Latter, president of the Kennedy Center. “There are so many individuals and ensembles that deserve it, with only five slots each year,” she said in an interview. “So it’s really, really, really difficult, but it’s still a great privilege.”
Clooney has appeared in various films such as “Out of Sight,” “Michael Clayton,” “O Brother, Where Art?” He said in a statement that this honor was a “really exciting surprise” when he won the Best Supporting Actor Award for his role in “Syriana”.
“I grew up in a small town in Kentucky, and I couldn’t imagine that one day I would be sitting on the balcony in honor of the Kennedy Center,” he said.
The Kennedy Center said the event, which will be broadcast by CBS at a later date, will be produced by Done + Dusted this year.
“I’ve never hit me before. It made me feel mysterious,” Grant said.
She said she wanted to reach a diverse audience of listeners. “One of the reasons I liked to sing about faith was because I wanted to create a welcome table that everyone would feel like attending,” she said. (And who would she want to sing one of her songs and see in honor? Katy Perry sings her 1992 hit “Breath of Heaven”.)
U2, an Irish rock band featuring Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., remembered coming to the United States for the first time in 1980 and playing their first show at Ritz on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. New York. “But even more barbaric ideas never imagined that 40 years later we would be invited again to receive one of the country’s greatest honors,” they said.
Cuban-born composer Leon, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his work “Stride” in 2021, said he was shocked to find himself honored.
“To tell the truth, I couldn’t get out of the chair,” Leon said. “I hung up, I was.” This isn’t happening. No, no, no, this is not happening. It’s like a reaction of not believing what you hear. “
As a composer, conductor and educator, Leon has performed in the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and many other ensembles. She thanked her grandparents in Cuba for her. Her grandparents enrolled in a Havana music school at the age of four and bought a second-hand piano for practice, despite struggling to make ends meet. She said she called herself a “family project.”
Knight, who began his musical career at the age of four playing gospel, called his honor breathtaking. The Artist who won the Grammy Award seven times Having released multi-generational hits from “Midnight Train to Georgia” to “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” she sings in the hope of moving and touching her heart, whether it’s R & B, pop or gospel.
“That’s what I like about music. You don’t have to do one thing. You can tell the world a lot about you as a person,” Knight said.