Queen Latifah, Dionne Warwick, and the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb had been among the many 2023 Kennedy Middle honorees at a ceremony that befell on December 3. Now, the John F. Kennedy Middle for the Performing Arts has shared footage from the present. The ceremony in Washington, D.C., hosted this 12 months by 2017 honoree Gloria Estefan, honors distinctive lifetime contributions to the humanities. These paying tribute included Missy Elliott, Chloe Bailey, and Gladys Knight, to an viewers that counted the president and first woman amongst its quantity. Rounding out this 12 months’s awards class had been Billy Crystal and opera singer Renée Fleming. Watch performances and excerpts beneath.
Missy Elliott sang Queen Latifah’s praises in a speech relating her childhood publicity to Latifah’s music, earlier than Rapsody lined “Simply One other Day.…” “What Latifah has taught us,” Elliott stated, “is unity, to consider in your self, and to like a Black girl from infinity to infinity.” Watch the total speech beneath.
Chloe Bailey, Cynthia Erivo, and Gladys Knight all sang songs from Warwick’s storied discography, whereas Saturday Evening Stay’s Ego Nwodim and 2020 honoree Debbie Allen gave speeches within the soul legend’s honor. Bailey carried out “Stroll On By,” Erivo sang “Alfie,” and Knight picked out “Say a Little Prayer.”
Gibb’s tribute included a Michael Bublé model of “How Can You Mend a Damaged Coronary heart?” and Little Huge City’s tackle “Lonely Days, Lonely Nights.” Ben Platt sang “Nights on Broadway” and Ariana DeBose carried out a medley of the Bee Gees’ hits, corresponding to “How Deep Is Your Love” and “Stayin’ Alive.”
Fleming, in the meantime, was honored by Dove Cameron with a rendition of the musical quantity “The Gentle within the Piazza,” plus a joint efficiency of “You’ll By no means Stroll Alone,” from Carousel, by Tituss Burgess, Christine Baranski, and the Jubilation Choir.
“Receiving the Kennedy Middle Honors is one thing that everybody hopes may occur someday. I’ve usually thought of however by no means dreamed it might come true,” Gibb stated in a earlier assertion. In her assertion about receiving the respect, Queen Latifah stated, “After we began on this journey a long time in the past, we had been usually informed ‘No’…. To now be acknowledged amongst so many multi-hyphenates feels unbelievable, not for simply me and my crew, however for our neighborhood.”