The Kennedy Center will recognize Francis Ford Coppola, The Grateful Dead, Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval and The Apollo with its lifetime artistic achievement honor. “CBS Mornings” announced the news Thursday.
The recipients will be honored at the Kennedy Center’s annual national celebration of the arts, which will take place in Washington D.C. The ceremony will be available to watch on Dec. 23 starting at 9 p.m. ET on CBS and will also be available to stream on Paramount+. Subscribers to Paramount+ with Showtime will be able to watch the 47th Annual Kennedy Center Honors live and on demand, while Paramount+ Essential subscribers will only be able to watch the ceremony on-demand the day after the event airs.
As for this year’s honorees, Coppola has been a recipient of five Academy Awards, six Golden Globes, two Palmes d’Or and a British Academy Film Award. He’s best known for his films “The Godfather” and “The Godfather Part II” as well as “Apocalypse Now,” “The Outsiders,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and his recently released “Megalopolis.”
The Grateful Dead’s honorees will include living members Mickey Hart, Billy Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir. The members of the band, including the late lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, are considered the grandfathers of the jamband genre. Their neverending tour has remained one of the highest-grossing American live acts of all time, and earlier this year they broke the record for the most Top 40 albums to chart on the Billboard 200 despite disbanding in 1995.
Over the course of her career, blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Raitt has received 13 Grammy Awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Her award-winning album “Nick of Time” was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry. Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Composer Sandoval is a multi-instrument talent who plays the piano, trumpet and timbales. Over the course of his career, Sandoval has won 10 Grammy Awards as well as an Emmy. He also performed at the White House and the Super Bowl in 1995.
Finally, The Apollo Theater will receive a special Kennedy Center Honors as an iconic American institution. Located in the Harlem neighborhood in New York City, the popular venue is known for hosting Black performers and is also the home of the TV series “Showtime at the Apollo.” The Apollo has been designated as a New York City landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The nonprofit Apollo Theater Foundation currently operates the theater.
Over the course of its multi-decade history, the Kennedy Center Honors celebrates individuals for their unique artistic contributions that have “shaped the way we see ourselves, each other and our world,” according to a press release for the event. Honorees are not divided by any specific category and are confirmed by the executive committee of the Center’s board of trustees.
For the third year in a row, the 47th Annual Kennedy Center Honors will be produced by Done+Dusted in association with ROK Productions. David Jammy, Elizabeth Kelly and Jack Sussman will serve as the event’s executive producers, and Alex Rudzinski will direct the show.
