George Clooney, Gladys Knight amongst Kennedy Heart honorees

Performers equivalent to Gladys Knight or the Irish band U2 often can be headlining a live performance for 1000’s however at Sunday’s Kennedy Heart Honors the tables can be turned as they and different artists would be the ones feted for his or her lifetime of creative contributions.

Actor, director, producer and human rights activist George Clooney, groundbreaking composer and conductor Tania León, and modern Christian singer Amy Grant will be part of Knight and your entire crew of U2 in being honored by the John F. Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts.

The group honors a choose group of individuals yearly for his or her creative influences on American tradition. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their respective spouses are slated to attend.

The 61-year-old Clooney — the actor amongst this yr’s musically leaning group of honorees — has tv credit going again into the late Seventies however grew to become a family title with the position of Doug Ross on the tv present “ER.” conductor Tania León, and

From there he starred in films equivalent to “Three Kings,” “Ocean’s Eleven” (and “Twelve” and “13”), “O Brother, The place Artwork Thou?” and his most up-to-date movie, “Ticket to Paradise.” He additionally has in depth directing and producing credit together with “Good Night time, and Good Luck.” He and his spouse, humanitarian rights lawyer Amal Clooney, created the Clooney Basis for Justice, and he is produced telethons to lift cash for numerous causes.

“To be talked about in the identical breath with the remainder of these unimaginable artists is an honor. This can be a genuinely thrilling shock for the entire Clooney household,” stated Clooney in a press release on the Heart’s web site.

Knight, 78, stated in a press release that she was “humbled past phrases” at receiving the Kennedy honor. The Georgia-born Knight started singing gospel music on the age of 4 and went on to a profession that has spanned many years.

Knight and relations began a band that may later be often called Gladys Knight & The Pips and produced their first album in 1960 when Knight was simply 16. Since then she’s recorded dozens of albums with such basic hits as “I Heard It Via the Grapevine” and “Midnight Practice to Georgia.” Alongside the way in which she’s acted in tv reveals and films. When Knight and the band had been inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame, Mariah Carey described Knight as “a textbook you be taught from.”

Generally the Kennedy Heart honors not simply people however teams; “Sesame Road” as soon as acquired the nod.

This yr it is the band U2. The group’s robust connection to America goes again many years. They carried out in Washington throughout their first journey to America in 1980. In a press release the band — made up of Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. — stated they initially got here to America with massive desires “fueled partially by the generally held perception at dwelling that America smiles on Eire.”

“And it turned out to be true, but once more,” learn the assertion. “It has been a four-decade love affair with the nation and its folks, its artists, and tradition.”

U2 has bought 170 million albums and been honored with 22 Grammys. The band’s epic singles embody “I Nonetheless Have not Discovered What I am Trying For,” “Satisfaction (Within the Identify of Love)” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” Lead singer Bono has additionally turn into recognized for his philanthropic work to eradicate poverty and to lift consciousness about AIDS.

Christian music carried out Amy Grant stated in an interview with The Related Press that she’d by no means even been to the Kennedy Heart Honors although her husband, nation musician Vince Gill, has carried out throughout earlier ceremonies. Grammy winner Grant is well-known for crossover pop hits like “Child, Child,” “Each Heartbeat” and “That is What Love is For.” She’s bought greater than 30 million albums, together with her 1991 document “Coronary heart in Movement,” which launched her to a bigger pop viewers.

Composer and conductor León stated throughout an interview when the honorees had been introduced that she wasn’t anticipating “something spectacular” when the Kennedy Heart initially reached out to her. In spite of everything, she’s labored with the Kennedy Heart quite a few occasions over time going again to 1980, when she was commissioned to compose music for a play.

However the 79-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner stated she was surprised to be taught that this time the ceremony was going to be for her.

León left Cuba as a refugee in 1967 and finally settled in New York Metropolis. She’s a founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Group Live performance Sequence.