Bonnie Raitt, the Grateful Dead, Francis Ford Coppola and Arturo Sandoval Earn Kennedy Center Honors 2024

At times, he wondered whether he had ruffled too many powerful feathers along the way to ever receive Kennedy Center Honors induction.​​

“I’ve been eligible for the past 20 years, so the fact that I never received it made me feel that maybe I never would,” said Coppola, who took part in the 2007 induction of fellow director Martin Scorsese, 81. “I just assumed I wasn’t going to win it, so to hear that I was chosen was a surprise and a delight.”​​

Coppola, who has produced wine from his northern California vineyard for more than 40 years, also made sure to shout out another northern California recipient this year.​​

“And it’s a big treat to be there this year with the Grateful Dead, my San Francisco colleagues,” he said. “I’m very delighted and pleased.”​​

Arturo Sandoval

Jeremy Lock

Sandoval rose to prominence as a musician in his native Cuba, playing piano and percussion but specializing in the trumpet. His work brought him into contact with jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, who championed his music and personally helped him defect from Cuba while on tour in Europe in 1990. Shortly after his defection, Sandoval performed at his mentor Gillespie’s own Kennedy Center Honors induction.​​

“Modesty apart, I do think I deserve it. I worked so hard for so many years,” Sandoval told The Associated Press. “It’s a huge honor, and I feel completely overwhelmed. I have to pinch myself sometimes. I’m just a little farmer from Cuba. God has been so good to me.”​​

Bonnie Raitt

Ken Friedman

Raitt’s memories of the Kennedy Center Honors go back to the 1970s, when she accompanied her father, Broadway performer John Raitt, who was taking part in a tribute to composer Richard Rodgers.​​

“I got to visit the White House and hang out with the Carters,” said Raitt. “I got my first taste of what this weekend really means.

”​​As an adult performer, Raitt experienced the other side of the Kennedy Center Honors equation: performing as part of tributes to Mavis Staples in 2016 and Buddy Guy in 2012. These performances are frequently kept secret from the honorees themselves, and Raitt said she looks forward to seeing who the planners come up with for her tribute.​

“I really, really want to be surprised, and I don’t want to know,” she said.​​

Over a 50-year career, Raitt has received a plethora of music awards, including 13 Grammys and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone magazine named her to its lists of the 100 greatest guitarists and the 100 greatest singers of all time. But Raitt said the Kennedy Center Honors status holds a special place because it extends to all aspects of the performing arts, encompassing all forms of music, dance and performance.​​

“The thing that puts [Kennedy Center Honors] at the pinnacle is that it’s culture-wide,” she said. “It’s hard for me to even fathom what this means.”

The Apollo

Shahar Azran

​​It’s extremely rare for the Kennedy Center Honors to select a venue, rather than a performer. But The Apollo’s nine-decade run as an incubator for generations of Black talent has qualified it as an exception.​​

“It’s not a traditional honoree, for sure,” said Michelle Ebanks, 62, the Apollo’s president and CEO, who cited the recent induction of the show Sesame Street as a similar out-of-the-box selection. “We’re absolutely delighted by the honor.”​​

The Harlem landmark has served as a proving ground for Black performers dating back to Billie Holiday, James Brown and Stevie Wonder, 74, and extending into modern performers like Lauryn Hill. This year, the theater has moved events to a new venue down the street, dubbed The Apollo Stages at the Victoria Theater, while the original venue undergoes renovation and expansion.​​

“It’s more than a theater. It’s a cultural touchstone … that’s rooted in the Harlem community,” Ebanks said. “It really is a recognition of a collective passion.… Over the decades, The Apollo has never stood still.”​​​​​​