The 43rd Kennedy Center Honors aired on CBS on Sunday night, with the annual ceremony having taken place last month. Normally held at the State Department, this year’s event was held at the Kennedy Center’s opera house and was hosted by singer and previous Kennedy Center Honors recipient Gloria Estefan. Honorees included country star Garth Brooks; artist, choreographer, and actress Debbie Allen; singer-songwriter and activist Joan Baez; violinist Midori; and actor Dick Van Dyke.
The event ran for 90 minutes with a limited audience and the musical performances and tributes were split into two other nights. Brooks was honored with performances by Kelly Clarkson, who sang his hit “The Dance,” Jimmie Allen, who performed Brooks’ smash hit “Friends in Low Places” and “The Thunder Rolls,” James Taylor, who sang “The River,” and Gladys Knight, who shared her rendition of “We Shall Be Free.” Jason Aldean, Bradley Cooper, John Travolta and Wayne Gretzky honored Brooks with special messages as presenters during the ceremony.
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Brooks’ tribute was last, with Cooper delivering his introduction. “There’s country music, rock, gospel, honky-tonk — and then there’s Garth Brooks. Garth is a power hitter, who swung for the fences and shattered the barriers between musical genres forever expanding the vocabulary of country music and changing American culture,” he said, adding that despite his record-breaking success, Brooks has “remained the humblest man you’ll ever meet.”
John Travolta shared that Brooks, who is his good friend, had been there for him during “difficult times, always with a strong shoulder, a sympathetic ear and a word of wisdom to help me get through.” Brooks became emotional during the performances tributing him; he teared up during Clarkson’s rendition of “The Dance” and again when Taylor sang “The River.” He also got choked up when Knight performed “We Shall Be Free,” a performance that followed Allen’s, during which Brooks encouraged the crowd to stand and clap along.
“I am humbled and grateful to EVERYONE that has celebrated this music over the years, this is OUR honor TOGETHER,” Brooks shared on Instagram on Sunday. “To the singers and players who perform in the show tonight, thank you for making me fall in love with the music all over again. gratitude, respect, love, g.”
Additional performers during the 43rd Kennedy Center Honors included Sturgill Simpson, Rhiannon Giddens, Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Derek Hough, Laura Osnes, Aaron Tveit, Pentatonix, Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Adele Anthony, Hilary Hahn, Randall Goosby and Midori’s Orchestra Residencies Program.
