{"id":673190,"date":"2026-11-03T00:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/673190\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T00:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T00:48:09","slug":"2026-kennedy-center-honorees-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/673190\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Kennedy Center Honorees: List"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPaul Anka<\/a>, David Foster<\/a>, Barbara Mandrell<\/a>, Andy Garcia and David Mamet are the 2026 Kennedy Center Honorees.<\/p>\n

\n\tThree of the five honorees were born outside of the U.S. Anka and Foster were both born in Canada; Garcia was born in Cuba. This marks the second time that two honorees were born in Canada. Joni Mitchell and SNL creator Lorne Michaels were both honored in 2021. Garcia is the fourth artist who was born in Cuba to receive the Kennedy Center Honors. Gloria Estefan was honored in 2017, followed by composer Tania Le\u00f3n in 2022 and jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval in 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year\u2019s honorees range in age from Garcia, 70, to Anka, 85.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnlike last year, when President Donald Trump<\/a> personally announced the five honorees at a live press event, this year\u2019s selections were announced in the traditional way, in a press release, which included a quote from Trump: \u201cWe are recognizing amazing artists whose lifelong work has shaped American culture and inspired generations of audiences,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are proud to honor this year\u2019s class and to continue a tradition that has defined the Center for nearly 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year\u2019s honorees were chosen based on the recommendation of the Kennedy Center\u2019s special honors advisory committee, whose members include former honorees, artists and members of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, under the leadership of Trump, as its chairman.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Kennedy Center announcement did not announce the program\u2019s broadcast partner for 2026. CBS has broadcast the Kennedy Center Honors every year since they were first presented in 1978 through 2025. The Kennedy Center announcement did indicate that Boeing is the exclusive underwriter of the Kennedy Center Honors Gala. Delta Air Lines is the official airline; Tiffany & Co. is the official medallion partner.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 2025 honorees, which, Trump boasted, he played a large role in selecting, were country icon George Strait<\/a>, theatrical rock veterans KISS<\/a>, Broadway star Michael Crawford, disco star Gloria Gaynor<\/a> and actor-director Sylvester Stallone<\/a>. (Tom Cruise<\/a> reportedly declined the honor last year, due to \u201cscheduling conflicts.\u201d)<\/p>\n

\n\tBy way of comparison, the 2024 honorees, the last class to receive the honors under President Joe Biden<\/a>, were filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, iconic rock band Grateful Dead<\/a>, singer-songwriter-guitarist Bonnie Raitt<\/a>, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval<\/a> and The Apollo Theater in Harlem, the first venue to receive the honor.<\/p>\n

\n\tMonday\u2019s announcement of the 2026 Kennedy Center Honorees is coming much later in the year than last year\u2019s announcement, which was made on Aug. 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 49th annual Kennedy Center Honors will be held on Dec. 7 \u2014 the same date as last year\u2019s event \u2014 but at a new and much larger venue. The honors have been held in the 2,347-capacity Opera House of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts since 1978, when they were first presented, but will move to Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., for this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe awards will continue to be called the Kennedy Center Honors, with President Trump\u2019s name not appearing. The names of both the venue and the awards have been a source of considerable tension in the past year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Kennedy Center opened in 1971 as a memorial to President Kennedy, who had been assassinated in Dallas eight years earlier. The Kennedy Center Honors were first presented in 1978. The inaugural class consisted of contralto Marian Anderson, dancer-actor-singer Fred Astaire, choreographer George Balanchine, composer Richard Rodgers and pianist Arthur Rubinstein.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the focus in the early years was on fine arts \u2014 heavy on classical and opera \u2014 over the decades, it has broadened to also include more popular forms of music. In 1987, B.B. King<\/a> became the first blues artist to be inducted. Other performers who were the first in their genres to be honored were Roy Acuff <\/a>for country in 1991, Aretha Franklin<\/a> for R&B in 1994, Pete Seeger<\/a> for folk in 1994, Bob Dylan<\/a> for rock in 1997, Gloria Estefan<\/a> for Latin music in 2017 and LL Cool J<\/a> for rap in 2017.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Kennedy Center Honors have long been regarded as one of the year\u2019s classiest TV programs. The show has won 24 Primetime Emmys, including 10 awards as the year\u2019s top variety program.<\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s a capsule summary of each of the 2026 Kennedy Center Honorees.<\/p>\n

\tPaul Anka<\/p>\n

\n\tAnka, 85, has been writing and recording hits for nearly seven decades. His first hits, \u201cDiana\u201d and \u201cYou Are My Destiny,\u201d pre-date the inception of the Hot 100 in August 1958. He has had 10 top 10 hits on that chart, including a pair of No. 1 hits more than 15 years apart \u2013 \u201cLonely Boy\u201d and \u201c(You\u2019re) Having My Baby.\u201d He went on to write the English language lyric for Frank Sinatra\u2019s late-career signature song, \u201cMy Way,\u201d and the jaunty theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnka is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. His honors include the Songwriters Hall of Fame\u2019s top honor, the Johnny Mercer Award; BMI\u2019s Icon Award and France\u2019s National Order of Merit.<\/p>\n

\tDavid Foster<\/p>\n

\n\tFoster, 77, is a 16-time Grammy winner. His Grammys include three awards for producer of the year, non-classical; three for album of the year; and two for record of the year. He has won Grammys for his work with such wide-ranging artists as Earth, Wind & Fire, Chicago, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion and Michael Bubl\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\n\tFoster won a Golden Globe for co-writing \u201cThe Prayer\u201d from Quest for Camelot and a Primetime Emmy for co-writing music for ABC\u2019s The Concert for World Children\u2019s Day. He is three-time Oscar nominee for best original song. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Foster is best known for producing hits for other artists, he had a top 15 hit on the Hot 100 as an artist in 1985 \u2014 \u201cLove Theme From St. Elmo\u2019s Fire.\u201d He also had Hot 100 hits as an artist for a collab with Olivia Newton-John in 1986 and the theme song from the 1988 Winter Olympics. In 2008 and 2011, he starred in the PBS specials Hit Man: David Foster and Friends and Hit Man Returns. In 2018, he started touring with his show \u201cAn Intimate Evening With David Foster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFoster and Anka have a long history: Foster co-wrote Anka\u2019s 1983 hit \u201cHold Me Till The Morning Comes,\u201d which reached No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n

\tBarbara Mandrell<\/p>\n

\n\tMandrell, 77, is the fourth female country artist to receive the Kennedy Center Honors, following Loretta Lynn (2003), Dolly Parton (2006) and Reba McEntire (2018). In 1981, she became the first two-time recipient of entertainer of the year at the Country Music Association Awards. She also won two CMA Awards for female vocalist of the year awards. She was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009 and is a two-time Grammy winner.<\/p>\n

\n\tMandrell landed six No. 1 hits on Billboard\u2019s Hot Country Songs chart: \u201cSleeping Single in a Double Bed,\u201d \u201c(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don\u2019t Want to Be Right,\u201d \u201cYears,\u201d \u201cI Was Country When Country Wasn\u2019t Cool,\u201d \u201cTill You\u2019re Gone\u201d and \u201cOne of a Kind Pair of Fools.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMandrell and her sisters, Louise and Irlene, had a hit variety TV show in the early 1980s, Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters. In 1997, Barbara Mandrell retired with a final concert titled Barbara Mandrell and the Do-Rites: The Last Dance. It was filmed at the Grand Ole Opry for broadcast on TNN.<\/p>\n

\n\tMandrell reacted to her award with a post on Instagram: \u201cReceiving the Kennedy Center Honors is one of the greatest honors of my life. First and foremost, I give thanks to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose grace has guided me throughout my life and career. I\u2019m grateful to my family, the musicians and songwriters who have been part of this journey, and the fans who have supported me through every season. Country music has been a gift to me, and I\u2019m humbled that the songs and performances we shared continue to mean something to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAndy Garcia<\/p>\n

\n\tGarcia, 70, received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actor for The Godfather, Part III. In 2001, he received two Primetime Emmy nominations and his second Golden Globe nomination for HBO\u2019s For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story, which he executive produced and starred in.<\/p>\n

\n\tGarcia won a Grammy in 2005 as producer of Israel Lopez\u2019s \u00a1Ahora S\u00ed!, which was voted best traditional tropical Latin album.<\/p>\n

\tDavid Mamet<\/p>\n

\n\tMamet, 78, is a two-time Tony Awards nominee for best play, for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). He is also a two-time Oscar nominee for best adapted screenplay for The Verdict (1983) and Wag the Dog (1997) and a two-time Primetime Emmy nominee for writing and directing Phil Spector, a 2013 look at the famous (and infamous) record producer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Anka, David Foster, Barbara Mandrell, Andy Garcia and David Mamet are the 2026 Kennedy Center Honorees. Three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[6971,93,61,60,97899,278],"class_list":["post-673190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-awards","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kennedy-center-honors","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}