{"id":149042,"date":"2022-12-05T20:27:30","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T20:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/u2-gladys-knight-amy-grant-and-more-feted-at-kennedy-center-honors-billboard\/"},"modified":"2022-12-05T20:27:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T20:27:30","slug":"u2-gladys-knight-amy-grant-and-more-feted-at-kennedy-center-honors-billboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/u2-gladys-knight-amy-grant-and-more-feted-at-kennedy-center-honors-billboard\/","title":{"rendered":"U2, Gladys Knight, Amy Grant and More Feted at Kennedy Center Honors \u2013 Billboard"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tU2 was in the house, and so were George Clooney, Gladys Knight, Amy Grant and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and conductor Tania Leon. To say expectations were high for Sunday night’s (Dec. 6) 45th iteration of the Kennedy Center Honors would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

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\tAnd they were largely, if unevenly, met at the star-studded event attended by President Biden, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was accompanied by her husband Paul Pelosi, donning a hat and glove on one hand, who made his first public appearance since being beaten in October in their San Francisco home.<\/p>\n

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\tKnight had performed for 2020 honoree Garth Brooks, who hosted this year’s State Department dinner the preceding night where the honorees received their medallions, and he returned the courtesy by performing her hit \u201cMidnight Train to Georgia,\u201d while schooling the audience on the song’s country roots.<\/p>\n

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\tAriana DeBose talked about how she listened to Knight’s music growing up in North Carolina before launching into \u201cI Heard It Through the Grapevine.\u201d And a teary-eyed Patti LaBelle honored her \u201csister-friend\u201d with stories of their personal and professional bond through six decades before launching into \u201cThat’s What Friends Are For.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tLL Cool J had high praise for one of his musical heroes. \u201cLike stars in the night’s sky, Gladys Knight illuminates everyone in her orbit,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cI once heard Gladys sing the ABCs and I thought I was in church.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tOn the red carpet before the show, Knight was all smiles about getting to spend time with the current President. \u201dI feel like he’s my brother. We go way back, and he has such a tender heart,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\tJulia Roberts set the stage for the Clooney tribute wearing a gown embellished with photos of her longtime friend. After doing a bit of good-natural roasting she applauded him for being \u201cprofoundly present and attentive to the world outside of himself\u201d and calling Clooney \u201cthe best combination of a gentleman and a playmate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tThe roasting continued with Richard Kind declaring \u201cwe could solve world problems if everyone could agree\u201d the way they do about Clooney’s failed run as the Dark Knight in 1997’s Batman & Robin,<\/em> and Matt Damon sharing that Clooney once defecated in Kind’s kitty litter box and stole stationery from then-President Bill Clinton and wrote notes to fellow actors on it.<\/p>\n

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\tBut there was plenty of focus on Clooney’s humanitarian efforts, which began at a very young age. His father, Nick Clooney, shared a story about how a 7-year-old George gave up all his toy guns because he was so heartbroken after Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. Don Cheadle spoke about his efforts working with Clooney to help the people of Sudan’s Darfur region and how the two recently co-founded a school.<\/p>\n

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\tAsked before the show whether being in DC had made him reconsider a once-rumored second career in politics, Clooney turned to his wife Amal and said, \u201cNah. We have a very nice life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tCuban-born Leon, who won the Pulitzer Prize for composing the orchestral work stride<\/em> that was inspired by the activism of Susan B. Anthony, was feted, among others, by pianist, producer and composer Chloe Flower; members of the Dance Theater of Harlem; the Kennedy Center’s artistic director for jazz Jason Moran; and composer and opera singer Alicia Hall Moran, who noted Leon’s works \u201care crafted moments in time, inspired by art and history and nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tSpeaking before the show, Leon said she was inspired by the opportunity to be in the White House, which she’d never visited as a tourist. \u201cAll this is going to hit me. After I get home and I settle in and have a little bit of tea, I know this is going to do something to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\tGrant is the first contemporary Christian artist to be bestowed a rainbow lanyard. Outspoken in her support for the LGBTQ+ community, she’s been pushing musical and cultural boundaries for decades. Of her guiding principle, she told billboard<\/em>, \u201cMy mother said to me, and what I say to my children, ‘You have to wrap your arms around your own life, and no one can hear your heart but you.’ \u201c<\/p>\n

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\tEach segment focused on her dedication to faith and family. Katie Couric called her \u201cthe perfect elixir for troubled minds and troubled souls.\u201d Sheryl Crow noted, \u201cAmy taught me it’s possible to be funny, irreverent and Christian at the same time\u201d before breaking into a rendition of Grant’s No. 1 hit \u201cBaby Baby,\u201d which, it turns out, Grant was inspired to write when one of her daughters was an infant.<\/p>\n

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\tGospel duo BeBe & CeCe Winans lent their soaring vocals to a medley of Grant tunes, as did all of the Highwomen\u2014Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires.<\/p>\n

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\tSpeaking with Billboard pre-show, Carlile talked about how moved she was being able to perform for both Grant and U2 at the show.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cThe thing about those two that touches me the most deeply is that they play out their music, their ambassadorship, their philanthropy through a faith-based lens, really the Christian faith, right on their sleeve, which is a difficult subject for me and people like me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cWe’ve all been a little bit marginalized by that faith and for some of us it’s a source of a lot of trauma. And so the way that U2 and Amy Grant have really come out and publicly supported LGBTQIA people, it’s been really healing and life-affirming for a lot of us. So it’s the least I can do to be here tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tWhich brings us to the show-closing tribute to U2 members Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., which began with a compelling video featuring Beyonc\u00e9, Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Finneas reciting some of the band’s poignant lyrics. Credit to Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, who poured his all into \u201cElevation\u201d and \u201cOne,\u201d the latter of which was a last-minute addition after Mary J. Blige had to bow out due to illness.<\/p>\n

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\tJust as things were picking up momentum and it seemed the audience may be ready to rise from their seats for some dancing, Sacha Baron Cohen appeared on stage in character as his alter-ego Borat Sagdiyev, the dimwitted journalist from Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

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\tYes, any time Borat shows up you can expect it to get weird and yes, he was hysterical, riffing on everything from his confusion that President Trump was no longer in office to Kanye West’s recent fall from grace: \u201cHe even tried to move to Kazakhstan, and he even changed his name to Kazakhstan-ye West. But we said no, he’s too antisemitic even for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tBut his banter had very little to do with U2 and seemed an odd way to use the band’s allotted time. When Carlile came back out, joined by Hozier, to perform a rendition of \u201cWalk On,\u201d it felt like a bit of a rushed finale when many of the night’s previous performers appeared back on stage.<\/p>\n

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\tThis is, after all, U2, one of the most celebrated rock bands of all time with 22 Grammys, 170 million albums sold worldwide and only the fifth band to be inducted in Kennedy Center Honors history. To not have included more music, no songs from their defining 1987 album The Joshua Tree<\/em>no crescendo’ing anthems, just seemed like a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

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\tOverall, the event hit plenty of high notes, with elevated stage designs and pacing for each honoree thanks to new production partner Done + Dusted, and multiple presenters echoing words spoken the previous night by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken: \u201cUltimately, these artists remind us of our common humanity, that no matter who we are or where we’re from\u2026 we are all moved by the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tThe 2022 Kennedy Center Honors will air Wednesday, December 28 at 8pm on CBS and stream on sister network Paramount+.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n