Billy Crystal, Dionne Warwick, & More Among 2023 Kennedy Center Honorees

The 2023 Kennedy Center Honorees have been announced, and all five have strong connections to music. The honorees, announced today (June 22), are actor and comedian Billy Crystal, soprano Renée Fleming, singer-songwriter and former Bee Gees member Barry Gibb, rapper, singer and actress Queen Latifah, and singer Dionne Warwick.

This year’s show will tape December 3 on the Kennedy Center Opera House stage in Washington, D.C., for broadcast later that month on CBS. It will also be available on Paramount+. Like many award shows this year, it will include another 50th anniversary salute to hip-hop, which makes Queen Latifah’s induction this year pretty fitting. Additionally, singer Gloria Estefan will host the ceremony.

The honorees have traditionally been celebrated throughout the weekend, with a reception hosted by the State Department and another at the White House. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have attended the event the past two years.

David Rubenstein, the chairman of the Kennedy Center, had something special to say about each of the honorees in a statement. He said that Crystal was “a true comedic icon and multi-talented artist since the 1980s who has kept millions laughing around the world.” He said that Gibb, “along with his late brothers Robin and Maurice, set the music world on fire in the 60s and later defined the modern dance era with their trademark falsetto sound and groove style.” Fleming, he said, “has captivated audiences worldwide with her luminous voice, incomparable artistry and a knack for brining opera into the mainstream for more than four decades.”

As for Latifah, he said she “shaped and innovated the art form in its earliest days, representing Black woman everywhere and using the idiom to become a powerful voice for change.” Warwick “has blazed a trail with her signature voice, scintillating presence and trove of hits that has become a soundtrack of inspiration for generations of artists and audiences.”

Additionally, each of the honorees have made their own official statements. Read them below.

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_{Article Image:  Billy Crystal at the 2022 Critics' Choice Awards, Dionne Warwick at the premiere of the movie 80 for Brady in 2023. (imagepressagency and imagepressagency via DepositPhotos.)}