When Bonnie Raitt heard she had been chosen as a Kennedy Center honoree, she kept asking her manager: Are they sure?
Raitt, whose song “Just Like That …” beat out higher-charting pop acts last year to win the Grammy for song of the year, said the honor was a surprise because after years of recognition mostly confined to blues and Americana spaces, she did not consider herself a mainstream artist.
“I don’t live by the validation of either commercial success or getting awards,” Raitt, 74, said. “But because this is such an esteemed weekend and event and process, I don’t think there will ever be anything that I receive that is as important.”
Raitt will receive a lifetime artistic achievement award at the 47th Kennedy Center Honors on Dec. 8 along with the filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, the beloved rock band the Grateful Dead, the Cuban American jazz trumpeter and composer Arturo Sandoval and the Harlem landmark the Apollo Theater.
The Kennedy Center Honors will be broadcast on Dec. 23 by CBS and streamed on Paramount Plus.
In the past, entities such as “Sesame Street” and “Hamilton,” have been honored, but the Apollo will be the first institution to be recognized. The theater is renowned for its history as a debut venue for many Black performers at its famed amateur nights, including Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.
Michelle Ebanks, president and chief executive of the Apollo, said receiving the news was a surreal moment because it was so unexpected.
“It is as unique as the Apollo is itself,” said Ebanks, who was sitting in the office with Kamilah Forbes, the institution’s executive producer, when she heard. “It’s a tremendous recognition of the very special place that the Apollo has played in culture.”
Coppola, the 85-year-old filmmaker behind American classics including “The Godfather” and “Apocalypse Now,” said his entire career had taken place in the shadow of the Academy Awards. But for someone who grew up in an Italian American family, he said, the Kennedy Center honor felt like it came from the country itself.
“My mother said, ‘You’re an American, it’s the greatest country in the world,’” he said. “And my father said, ‘But you’re also Italian — that’s a country that produced such wonderful artists and history.’ I was thrilled I had both. So, this means a lot to me as an American.”
When reflecting on his contributions to culture, Coppola said he thought of “The Godfather,” particularly the gangster movie’s first line: “I believe in America.”
“Even though it takes a tricky path through right and wrong, legal and illegal, ultimately at its root, it’s an American parable,” Coppola said.
This year’s honorees also include four original members of the Grateful Dead: the drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, the bass guitarist Phil Lesh and the guitarist Bob Weir.
Kreutzmann said that while the Kennedy Center honor was nice, the Dead always put more emphasis on playing music than winning awards.
“This was just another kind of feather in a hat,” he said. “We felt really good about it, but it’s not that big a deal to us.”
Sandoval, a virtuosic trumpeter, winner of multiple Grammys and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, defected from Cuba in 1990 before being granted political asylum by the United States. He said the honor was inspiring.
“When something like the Kennedy Center recognizes your effort,” he said, “it puts a lot of gasoline into your soul to keep trying and improving.”
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