George Clooney , U2 and the Cuban-American composer Tania León are Kennedy Center honorees this year, the arts organization announced Thursday. Rounding out the 2022 inductees are Christian pop singer Amy Grant and soul legend Gladys Knight .
The Kennedy Center Honors , presented by the David F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Artistry in Washington, DC, are bestowed upon artists with exemplary bodies of work across different fields. Last year’s honorees included singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, Motown record executive Berry Gordy and “Saturday Night Live” inventor Lorne Michaels.
The particular 45th Kennedy Center Honors recipients stand for film and songs. The lone thespian in the bunch can be Clooney, who’s the philanthropist and tequila entrepreneur, best known with regard to his roles within films like the “Ocean’s Eleven” remake and it is sequels, “The Descendents” and, yes, one vitally reviled “Batman” film .
U2, the particular Irish rock band comprised of Bono , The Edge, Adam Clayton and Lewis Mullen Jr., has released rollicking and socially conscious music since the 1980s. León, who for decades has written original compositions influenced by the girl heritage, was granted the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her structure “Stride, ” which usually fused Black music traditions from the ALL OF US and the West Carribbean.
And Give and Knight have both made substantial contributions to Christian genres: Grant was your “first artist to create contemporary Christian music to the forefront of American culture, inch Kennedy Center chief David Rubenstein said in a statement ; and Knight, a seven-time Grammy winner, is definitely the “Empress of Soul” for her decades in the music industry, each as the frontwoman of the Pips and as the solo artist. (Both Knight and U2 have also been inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Popularity. )
All five artists expressed disbelief plus gratitude over their own respective inductions. Knight called her selection one of the “highlights of [her] career, ” a sentiment U2 echoed, calling it among the “greatest honours” in america.
Clooney said being named a Kennedy Center honoree was a “genuinely exciting surprise. ”
“Growing up in a town in Kentucky I could never have dreamed that someday I had created be the one seated in the balcony on the Kennedy Center Recognizes, ” he said. “To be pointed out in the same breath with the rest of these incredible artists is definitely an honor. ”
The Kennedy Center Honors Gala, during which the inductees are honored along with performances and homages to their work, will take place on December 4. A televised version of the ceremony will air on CBS TELEVISION STUDIOS at a later date, the arts organization said.