Kennedy Center Honors: The Show’s Most Memorable Performances
deadline.comThere’s a reason the word honors is in the title. To help celebrate the lifetime contributions of artists in music, dance, theater, opera, movies and TV, the Kennedy Center Honors routinely pay tribute to its recipients by rewarding them with memorable performances.
Scores of artists have been feted since the Honors got their start in 1978, but there are certain tributes that remain sketched in our hearts forever.
In anticipation of the 46th annual event honoring Billy Crystal, Renée Fleming, Barry Gibb, Queen Latifah, and Dionne Warwick on Dec.
27, we look back at some of the show’s most unforgettable performances — starting with Lenny Bernstein’s opening speech from the very first Kennedy Center Honors, of course. Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris and Rosanne Cash honor Johnny Cash in 1996 Three of country’s greats performed hits from Cash’s eclectic songbook — “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” “Folsom Prison Blues.” and “Ring of Fire” — but it wasn’t until Cash’s daughter Rosanne took the stage did the legend finally break down (honorees aren’t told beforehand who will pay tribute to them). “My father is a man of many paradoxes,” she began. “He was raised on a farm and formed by hard, manual labor and he emerged a poet, with a powerful resonant voice.
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