Entertainment

Tradition again: Biden celebrates Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell at Kennedy Center Honors

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden celebrated performers such as Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell and Lorne Michaels at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday, bringing back the presidential attendance at the annual ceremony ignored by Republican Donald Trump.

Singer Justino Daz and Motown founder Berry Gordy round out the Kennedy Center’s group of artists selected for top honors this year at a show that had been rocked by the politics and restrictions of the COVID-19.

Biden, a Democrat who took over from Trump in January, hosted a black tie ceremony for the five award winners earlier in the evening, the kind of glamorous celebration that has become rare in a White House that has avoided large gatherings in the COVID-19 era.

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Trump did not host such a reception in his four years in office, and did not attend the show at the Kennedy Center itself.

The artistic community has largely not opposed this absence. Singer and actress Cher, 2018 winner and outspoken Trump critic, said she should have accepted the award in a bathroom if Trump had come.

“It’s quite nice, very nice, to see the busy presidential box again,” comedian David Letterman said at the start of the show at the Kennedy Center, triggering a standing ovation from the masked crowd.

Biden, his wife Jill, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff all attended the ceremony.

The awards recognize a lifetime of achievement in the performing arts.

Midler, singer and actress, has received Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe awards for a career spanning decades, with album sales exceeding 30 million worldwide.

Midler spoke to reporters about the reception as she walked to the Kennedy Center. “It was divine in the White House,” she said. ” Very clean. Charming. Great staff. The food was excellent. The wine was a little sweet.

Singer-songwriter Mitchell, a native Canadian known for songs such as Both Sides, Now “and” Big Yellow Taxi, “is a recipient of multiple Grammy Awards and inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. debuted by honoring her with performances by Norah Jones and Brandi Carlile.

“I THINK I AM IN A DREAM”

Michaels, also from Canada, is the creator and executive producer of the longtime NBC sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live”.

“If you can’t laugh at yourself we are in real trouble and you make me laugh at myself a lot,” Biden said during his White House address, referring to Michaels, noting that the series has used seven comics to play it out over the years.

Comedy and other art forms and cultural exports help the United States lead by example around the world, the president said.

“Throughout my career I have met almost every world leader,” he said. “And I’ll tell you, not everyone sees satire that way. You’d all be in jail.”

Diaz, a baritone-bass opera singer from Puerto Rico, has performed with opera companies around the world.

Gordy, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, founded the Motown label which has become synonymous with a musical sound influenced by jazz and blues popularized by black artists such as Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Lionel Richie, whose career he helped shape. . Gordy is also inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

“I think I’m in a dream… and it’s a wonderful dream,” Gordy told reporters.

The Kennedy Center Honors will air on the CBS Television Network (VIAC.O) on December 22.

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Reporting by Jeff Mason and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Peter Cooney

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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