U2 Spotlight at Kennedy Centre

Jul 22, 2022 | 5:57 AM

U2 will be spotlighted at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Thursday (7-21) that the 22-time Grammy winners, along with actor George Clooney, singers Gladys Knight and Amy Grant and composer Tania León will be honored in December.

It’s a rare occasion that a band is among the honorees… Though U2 is in the company with Earth, Wind & Fire, they were the most recent group, that was in 2019. The Eagles were honored in 2016 and Led Zeppelin in 2012.

Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter said she was told that U2 frontman Bono was eating and was so surprised that he dropped his fork when he was told the band had been selected for this lifetime achievement award.

This is the 45th year of the honors, which will include a gala performance Dec. 4 in Washington featuring top entertainers. The show will be broadcast on CBS at a later date.

 

SIDE NOTES

  • U2 has sold 170 million albums and been honored with 22 Grammys. The band’s epic singles include “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday.”
  • In a statement thanking the Kennedy Center, the band noted it played its first show in America in New York in 1980. Its second show was in Washington.
  • Band Quote: “We had big dreams then, fueled in part by the commonly held belief at home that America smiles on Ireland. And it turned out to be true, yet again. But even in the wilder thoughts, we never imagined that 40 years on, we would be invited back to receive one of the nation’s greatest honors,” the band said in a statement, calling the United States “a home away from home.”

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