(CNN) This year’s Kennedy Center honorees include a former Batman, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and several members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
This year, the Kennedy Center will honor George Clooney, the band U2, and the Cuban-American composer Tania León, the art group said Thursday. Amy Grant, a Christian pop singer, and Gladys Knight, a soul legend, round out the class of 2022.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, gives the Kennedy Center Honors to artists who have done great work in many different fields. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, Motown record executive Berry Gordy, and “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels were all honored last year.
The winners of the 45th Kennedy Center Honors come from the worlds of film and music. Clooney is the only actor in the group. He is also a philanthropist and a tequila business owner. He is best known for his roles in movies like “Ocean’s Eleven” and its sequels, “The Descendents,” and, yes, a critically panned “Batman” movie.
Since the 1980s, U2, an Irish rock band made up of Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. has been putting out music that is both fun and aware of social issues. León has been writing original music for decades that is influenced by her background. In 2021, she won the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her piece “Stride,” which combined Black music traditions from the US and the West Caribbean.
And both Grant and Knight have made big changes in Christian music: David Rubenstein, chairman of the Kennedy Center, said in a statement that Grant was the “first artist to bring contemporary Christian music to the forefront of American culture.” Knight, who has won seven Grammys, is known as the “Empress of Soul” for her many years in the music business, both as the leader of the Pips and as a solo artist. Knight and U2 have also been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
All five artists said they couldn’t believe they were inducted and were thankful. Knight said that being chosen as one of the “highlights” of her career. U2 agreed, saying that it was one of the “greatest honors” in the US.
