President Joe Biden blew a kiss to the President’s Own – his Marine Corps band – as he was feted during his final Kennedy Center Honors as commander-in-chief.
The audience, filled with Democratic and Republican politicians and top donors to the arts, gave the president a standing ovation as he entered his private box in the ornate theater.
‘We love you Joe’ and ‘Thank you Joe’ was shouted as Biden waved from above.
It’s his and Jill Biden’s last time attending one of Washington D.C.’s biggest social events. The Marine Corps band came on stage and played the national anthem in his honor. The first couple was joined by granddaughter Finnegan Biden – the second daughter of Hunter Biden – for the evening.
And the officials in charge of the Kennedy Center Honors said they hope Donald Trump will grace them with his presence next year when he is president. In his first four years in the White House, Trump never attended the annual event.
‘He didn’t before, but that was the past, and now we’re looking for the future,’ David Rubenstein, chairman of the Kennedy Center, told reporters. ‘I’m optimistic that he will want to come, but we’ll see. I can’t speak for him.’
‘We always invite the president United States, and we’ll make certain that he knows about the invitation.’
Rubenstein paid tribute to the Bidens when he spoke during the ceremony.
‘There’s no law that requires the President of the United States to attend,’ he noted. ‘But this four years, President Biden and Dr. Biden have been gracious hosts to us and attended the Kennedy Center Honors.’
‘Thank you for that, and also, President Biden, thank you for your 50 years of service to our country.’
The crowd responded with a standing ovation.
Biden hosted this year’s honorees – filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola; blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt; composer Arturo Sandoval; the Apollo Theater; and the surviving members of Grateful Dead – at the White House ahead of the formal ceremony.
He got a little wistful as he spoke to the crowd.
‘For the final time Jill and I are honor to represent the presidency to respect the power of the arts. You’re literally redeem the soul of the nation,’ he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff were also in the president’s box. They also received a standing ovation from the crowd.
‘In this country, over the last 200 and nearly 50 years, we’ve had 49 men serve as Vice President of the United States. We now have had a woman serve as Vice President,’ Rubenstein noted.
The Kennedy Center Honors are an award for lifetime artistic achievements. The mood is jovial and surprise guests show up to pay tribute to those accepting the honor.
George Lucas came on stage to pay tribute to Coppola, his former producing partner.
‘Francis is often described as an ambitious dreamer, a risk taker, command of action. These are all nice ways of saying he’s crazy,’ Lucas said. ‘But I mean, what would a sane person jump off a cliff? And over and over and over, what Francis does creatively is jump off cliffs.’
Robert DeNiro credited Coppola with starting his career.
‘His movies can be challenging, and then in the blink of an eye, they’re acknowledged as classics,’ ‘he said. ‘Without Francis Ford Coppola and Godfather Part Two, I don’t have this career. I love him. I thank him so much.’
And Al Pacino noted how hard Coppola fought to get his movies made.
‘He put up his house with his wife and three kids in it. I know. I was there,’ Pacino said as the audience roared.
Sheryl Crow sang for Raitt. Andy Garcia talked trumpet in honor of Sandoval.
David Letterman came out at the end of show to paid tribute to The Grateful Dead.
‘I am so f—ed up,’ he said as the audience roared with laughter. I’d like to apologize to President Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and, of course, Doug.’
The audience laughed. Emhoff waved.
The comedian then made a joke that referenced the fact Trump never came to Honors as president.
‘I was talking to the people backstage, and they’re going to try and get as many of these Honors in in place now, before the inauguration. And I think that’s a good thing,’ Letterman said.
A little politics overshadowed the evening. Musician Dave Matthews called for ‘peace and kindness’ at a time the nation is divided.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who had a contentious relationship with Trump, extended the olive branch and said she hopes he attends next year.
‘We’re just celebrating the arts and President Trump should attend next year,’ she told reporters ahead of the ceremony. ‘I think he would enjoy it. I think that people would love to see him come here, but that’s his decision.’
Queen Latifah, a recipient of a 2023 Kennedy Center Honor, handled hosting duties for the ceremony, which tapes on Sunday night and airs later in December.
Three surviving core members of the Grateful Dead — Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bobby Weir — were hand for the fete.
Hart said he talked to President Biden at the White House ahead of Kennedy Center Honors.
‘I asked him for a pardon, and he said “Yeah, sure thing,”‘ Hart joked.
The band, which was formed in California in 1965, is famous for improvisation during their live performances and for their devoted fan base, known as ‘Deadheads.’ Its lead singer Jerry Garcia died in 1995 but surviving members have played on.
Actor Miles Teller paid tribute to Garcia and other late members during the show.
He described Garcia as a ‘virtuoso and guitarist whose heavenly solos cut with an outlaw edge transparent transported all who experienced them to other worlds together.’
The Kennedy Center referred to the band as an ‘American treasure,’ whose musicians didn’t fit their music to an established category such as pop rock, blues, folk rock, or country & western. Instead they drew on all genres and often melded them together.
By 1995, the Grateful Dead had attracted the most concertgoers in the history of the music business, and today remains one of the all-time leaders in concert ticket sales.
The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Their final tally of 2,318 total concerts remains a world record.
Coppola is a widely-acclaimed director. He is the recipient of five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d’Or, and a BAFTA Award.
Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1939, Coppola was paralyzed by polio at nine years old. He was bedridden for a year and, during that time, he found solace in television and a toy 16mm movie projector, which developed his interest in film making.
He is known for the Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now, American Graffiti, and The Outsiders.
Raitt is considered one of the greatest musicians of all time. She has won 13 Grammys and a Lifetime Achievement Award. She’s a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
After 20 years as a cult favorite, she broke through to the top in the early 90s with her Grammy Award-winning albums, Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw, which featured her hits, ‘Something To Talk About’ and ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me.’
It wasn’t her first time at the Honors.
In the 1970s, she accompanied her father, Broadway performer John Raitt, who was taking part in a tribute to composer Richard Rogers.
‘I got to visit the White House and hang out with the Carters,’ she told the AP. ‘I got my first taste of what this weekend really means.’
Sandoval is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist, timbalero, and composer. He was born in Havana, where he studied the trumpet.
In 1989, when he was on a world tour, Sandoval visited the American Embassy in Athens, Greece, and asked to defect from Cuba. He became an American citizen on December 7, 1998.
His life was the subject of the film For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story, starring Andy García.
On November 20, 2013, President Barack Obama presented Sandoval with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He’s also received 10 Grammy Awards, six Billboard Awards, an Emmy, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Apollo, an historic black theatre in New York, is being honored for elevating the voices of black entertainment.
For nine decades it has been a center of innovation for Harlem.
Some of the artists who got their start at the Apollo include Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, H.E.R., D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Machine Gun Kelly, and Miri Ben Ari.
The Honors raise money for the Kennedy Center. The ceremony will air on CBS on Monday, Dec. 23.