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2013 Kennedy Center Honors


HarryCarter

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The 2013 Kennedy Center Honorees have been announced: Shirley MacLaine, Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock and Martina Arroyo.

 

Acclaimed actress Shirley MacLaine and four musicians spanning rock, jazz and opera — Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock and Martina Arroyo — will receive this year's Kennedy Center Honors, considered the nation's highest honor for those who influence American culture through the arts.

 

The honorees were announced Thursday. In December, President Barack Obama will host the recipients at the White House, and Secretary of State John Kerry will host a dinner for them at the State Department. Top entertainers will salute the honorees in a gala performance Dec. 8 to be broadcast Dec. 29 on CBS.

 

In an interview, Santana said he was very grateful and happy to be in the company of luminaries and to receive an award he remembers watching almost every year with his family. The 66-year-old musician who was born in a small, remote town in Mexico and immigrated with his family to San Francisco said he set out to bridge cultures and music styles.

 

"I guess people understand that Santana is not just a Mexican guitar player — I bring a collective-consciousness awareness agenda with me," he said. "I grew up with the generation of Woodstock and Bob Marley, 'One Love,' and 'Imagine,' John Lennon. I am one of them, and we don't do what we do to be commercial or to be popular or to be cute. It's not entertainment or show business for us. For us, it's a calling."

 

As a Mexican immigrant, Santana is unique among those who have received the cultural prize. Last year, the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts complained the Kennedy Center had long excluded Latinos. Of the more than 180 past honorees, only two have been Hispanic, the group said.

 

The criticism led to a revised selection process this year, including the solicitation of nominations from the public, and a new committee of artists and officials helped narrow the potential honorees.

 

Santana, who swept the 2000 Grammy Awards in nine categories with his album "Supernatural," said more mainstream institutions should be recognizing Latino artists.

 

"Piano Man" Billy Joel, one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, said he was honored to be named a Kennedy Center honoree. Joel, the pianist, singer and songwriter behind numerous unforgettable hits, including "Uptown Girl," ''Allentown" and "We Didn't Start the Fire," has devoted his life to music.

 

In a written statement, he said he was honored to join the roster of outstanding musicians who came before. "But to be chosen for this special award essentially for doing what I love most amazes me more than anything," he said.

 

For MacLaine, the honors almost feel like a homecoming, she said. The 79-year-old actress grew up in nearby Arlington, Va., and attended ballet lessons almost every day from the time she was 10 in nearby Georgetown. She said she has played her cello at the Kennedy Center in the past. The cultural prize, though, stands apart from other awards, she said.

 

"It's a more global kind of recognition ... not just Hollywood or New York," she told The Associated Press. "The people who get these awards are contributing to the world's art, and I feel privileged to be one of them."

 

After nearly 60 years as one of Hollywood's leading actresses, MacLaine hasn't stopped. She began this year with a role in the popular "Downton Abbey" on PBS and will close the year with her latest film, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," alongside Ben Stiller and Kristen Wiig.

 

Hancock, born in Chicago, became a classical music prodigy after his parents bought him a piano as a boy, and he played with the Chicago Symphony by the age of 11. In high school, he discovered jazz, however, and began learning by listening.

 

"The more I looked into it, the more it pulled me like a magnet," he said. "And I was hooked forever."

 

In 1963, Hancock joined the Miles Davis Quintet, one of the great jazz ensembles. He has gone on to embrace electronic music and to collaborate with the likes of Annie Lennox, John Mayer, Christina Aguilera and others.

 

Hancock, 73, said he is overwhelmed to join the ranks of Kennedy Center honorees, "to be on that list of people whose work I've respected for so many years during my lifetime."

 

Arroyo, born and raised in Harlem as the daughter of a Puerto Rican father and an African-American mother, said her voice was discovered by accident in high school when she was heard imitating the singers outside an opera workshop. She went on to star in the great opera houses in Paris, London, Vienna and beyond.

 

Arroyo made her debut at Carnegie Hall in 1958 and had her breakthrough with the Metropolitan Opera when she was called at the last minute to replace Birgit Nilsson in "Aida" in 1965. She went on to perform 199 times at the Metropolitan Opera, performing all the major Verdi roles, as well as roles from Mozart, Puccini and others.

 

Still, Arroyo, 76, said she is most proud of her work teaching young students about character study in opera.

 

Receiving the Kennedy Center Honors, she said, was unimaginable.

 

"We go around the world singing, and people say oh, there's an American singer. But this is your government saying, yeah, we like you, too," she said. "There's no higher group for me than my country. That makes it extremely special."

 

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=20234630&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

 

Shirley MacLaine is a great choice. I'm surprised that the other four are all musicians.

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Perhaps the Kennedy Center doesn't want to be seen as bending to the masses. <_<

They certainly don't want to honor really old people, that's been pretty obvious for years. It's all about the TV show and the ratings IMO although they always make sure a classical music/opera person is in the mix which I suspect is the main one they want to honor, somehow I don't think Martina Arroyo exactly topped the public's poll in the suggestions for honorees slot on their website (which was a joke in the first place, did anyone really believe this snooty bunch would listen to the public's suggestions? That was probably just about getting email addresses for their promos.) I've said it before but the public demand for Carol Channing or Dick Van Dyke if anything has probably hurt their chances even more since TKCH are clearly a roped off club that does not want any input from the hoi polloi.

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I honestly don't think these choices are based on potential Nielsen ratings or anything like that, it's not that kind of program. It's actually one of the few -- if only! -- throwbacks/holdovers from the good ole "CBS was the Tiffany" network "prestige" specials they still broadcast! Same for the Tonys -- they know they're not gonna be ratings blockbusters but there's some sort of "cache" to airing them, and we benefit as viewers, IMHO.

 

These "award" shows would probaby not go over as well, for some reason, I think, if carried by ABC, NBC and god forbid...FOX. :D

 

Just sayin.... ;)

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I honestly don't think these choices are based on potential Nielsen ratings or anything like that, it's not that kind of program. It's actually one of the few -- if only! -- throwbacks/holdovers from the good ole "CBS was the Tiffany" network "prestige" specials they still broadcast! Same for the Tonys -- they know they're not gonna be ratings blockbusters but there's some sort of "cache" to airing them, and we benefit as viewers, IMHO.

 

These "award" shows would probaby not go over as well, for some reason, I think, if carried by ABC, NBC and god forbid...FOX. :D

 

Just sayin.... ;)

Very well said Joey, I agree about everything you said.

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They certainly don't want to honor really old people, that's been pretty obvious for years. It's all about the TV show and the ratings IMO although they always make sure a classical music/opera person is in the mix which I suspect is the main one they want to honor, somehow I don't think Martina Arroyo exactly topped the public's poll in the suggestions for honorees slot on their website (which was a joke in the first place, did anyone really believe this snooty bunch would listen to the public's suggestions? That was probably just about getting email addresses for their promos.) I've said it before but the public demand for Carol Channing or Dick Van Dyke if anything has probably hurt their chances even more since TKCH are clearly a roped off club that does not want any input from the hoi polloi.

I thought something was wrong when they went to the yougins like Oprah and Neil Diamond among others.

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I honestly don't think these choices are based on potential Nielsen ratings or anything like that, it's not that kind of program. It's actually one of the few -- if only! -- throwbacks/holdovers from the good ole "CBS was the Tiffany" network "prestige" specials they still broadcast! Same for the Tonys -- they know they're not gonna be ratings blockbusters but there's some sort of "cache" to airing them, and we benefit as viewers, IMHO.

 

These "award" shows would probaby not go over as well, for some reason, I think, if carried by ABC, NBC and god forbid...FOX. :D

 

Just sayin.... ;)

 

I disagree because it seems obvious to me for the last decade or so the KCH makes sure there's at least two honorees who still have a very high profile and will be a audience lure even if they are a bit on the young side for this type of honors - Billy Joel and Carlos Santana this year (maybe Herbie Hancock too) - look at some of the people who've received it in recent years - Elton John, Dolly Parton, Neil Diamond, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Diana Ross, etc. all deserving certainly (well maybe not Oprah since isn't this supposed to be about "the arts"). It's still has it's "Tiffany" lustre but it's certainly would not be on CBS still if the ratings weren't there. The American Film Institute had to move to cable because they were honoring "oldies" young people didn't know and the ratings were often terrible and AFI has "learned" their lesson and for years now gives the award to still active and famous names rather than risk losing even cable so you aren't going to be seeing Olivia De Havilland or anybody over 70 getting their award in a long time. I believe the KCH is mainly giving these pop stars the honor because they can pull in the ratings, I'm sure they'd rather it be mostly classical musicians and vocalists with the occasional actor as it was in years past.

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I disagree because it seems obvious to me for the last decade or so the KCH makes sure there's at least two honorees who still have a very high profile and will be a audience lure even if they are a bit on the young side for this type of honors - Billy Joel and Carlos Santana this year (maybe Herbie Hancock too) - look at some of the people who've received it in recent years - Elton John, Dolly Parton, Neil Diamond, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Diana Ross, etc. all deserving certainly (well maybe not Oprah since isn't this supposed to be about "the arts"). It's still has it's "Tiffany" lustre but it's certainly would not be on CBS still if the ratings weren't there. The American Film Institute had to move to cable because they were honoring "oldies" young people didn't know and the ratings were often terrible and AFI has "learned" their lesson and for years now gives the award to still active and famous names rather than risk losing even cable so you aren't going to be seeing Olivia De Havilland or anybody over 70 getting their award in a long time. I believe the KCH is mainly giving these pop stars the honor because they can pull in the ratings, I'm sure they'd rather it be mostly classical musicians and vocalists with the occasional actor as it was in years past.

Also, how many GREATS are there out there, very few if you ask me, so the only ones deserving ARE the old ones, so they're being cheated as usual because of ageism. And aren't the ones that made us weep with love and pride the ones that had something to back up their receiving this award to begin with? And as much as I LOVE Letterman, remember when he got it they had that rock group with him, God forbid if leno and Fallon are next, LOL! And how about including one dead performer at each celebration for the ones that got cheated out of this honor?

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I disagree because it seems obvious to me for the last decade or so the KCH makes sure there's at least two honorees who still have a very high profile and will be a audience lure even if they are a bit on the young side for this type of honors - Billy Joel and Carlos Santana this year (maybe Herbie Hancock too) - look at some of the people who've received it in recent years - Elton John, Dolly Parton, Neil Diamond, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Diana Ross, etc. all deserving certainly (well maybe not Oprah since isn't this supposed to be about "the arts"). It's still has it's "Tiffany" lustre but it's certainly would not be on CBS still if the ratings weren't there. The American Film Institute had to move to cable because they were honoring "oldies" young people didn't know and the ratings were often terrible and AFI has "learned" their lesson and for years now gives the award to still active and famous names rather than risk losing even cable so you aren't going to be seeing Olivia De Havilland or anybody over 70 getting their award in a long time. I believe the KCH is mainly giving these pop stars the honor because they can pull in the ratings, I'm sure they'd rather it be mostly classical musicians and vocalists with the occasional actor as it was in years past.

Still, I have to respectfully disagree.  Would love to know who is involved in the honoree selection but I seriously doubt CBS has much if anything to do with it.  They probably have a harder time wanting to even air this thing every year since they've always had a hard time getting the "desired" (!) age demo (18- 49) that appeals so much to the advertisers who buy commercial time, and this particular program is certainly not going to draw that "preferred" audience. 

 

Besides that, look again at your own list of examples:  while Elton John and stretching it, even Diana Ross might be considered "pop stars" (not how I would perceive them) neither one is truly on any younglets "radar" as neither has had a huge hit record in years and they're both over 60; there's no one not over 50 in the rest of your list.  There's no -- thank GOD! -- Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Selena Gomez, or Lady Gaga, for example who'd be much, much preferable to the network as a ratings draw despite the fact none of them have been around long enough to have earned this prestigious honor.  

 

Just sayin..... ;)

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Interesting article, Harry; thanks for posting it. Great Alexander/Kennedy story :lucyhaha: . Seems they didn't pay much attention to their # 2 criteria of diversity ( " ... so we don't end up with four ballet dancers ... ") since there are 4 musicians being honored this year. While none is in the same musical field, still, they are all musicians :professor: .

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Interesting article, Harry; thanks for posting it. Great Alexander/Kennedy story :lucyhaha: . Seems they didn't pay much attention to their # 2 criteria of diversity ( " ... so we don't end up with four ballet dancers ... ") since there are 4 musicians being honored this year. While none is in the same musical field, still, they are all musicians :professor: .

Maybe they're just running out of great candidates, I mean, the average person might only know Shirley and Billy anyway.

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  • 3 months later...

I liked Shirley's tribute, but the lack of Hollywood names was strange. Where was former Kennedy Center Honoree Warren Beatty? The emphasis was on Broadway and they did have three Tony Award winning Broadway stars and one Tony and Oscar nominee. They were just about the only performers of the night who I had heard of! It was wise of them to focus on the musical side of Shirley's career. When they have a dramatic actor honoree, the tributes seem very talky and lack focus. The songs were well chosen and all are strongly associated with Shirley. I did like Shirley's tribute, but it should have been a lot bigger.

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Just finished watching Shirley MacLaine's segment. OMG!!! Where were the stars? Outside of Kathie Bates...c'mon Kennedy Center Honors...newbie no names to salute a legend?? This woman deserved a whole lot more and a much better salute IMO.

 

Oy!

 

This year's effort seemed to lack star power all over. I'm sure Sonia Sotomayor is a lovely woman, and she gave a lovely presentation, but such an unlikely presenter. I can only assume the real stars saw Bill O'Reilly on the list and decided to stay away.

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