Paul Anka, David Foster, Andy Garcia, David Mamet and Barbara Mandrell are the 2026 Kennedy Center Honorees.
Three of the five honorees were born outside of the U.S. Anka and Foster were both born in Canada; Garcia was born in Cuba. This year’s honorees range in age from Garcia, 70, to Anka, 85.
Unlike last year, when President Donald Trump personally announced the five honorees at a live press event, this year’s selections were announced in the traditional way, in a press release, which included a quote from Trump: “We are recognizing amazing artists whose lifelong work has shaped American culture and inspired generations of audiences,” he said. “We are proud to honor this year’s class and to continue a tradition that has defined the Center for nearly 50 years.”
This year’s honorees were chosen based on the recommendation of the Kennedy Center’s special honors advisory committee, whose members include former honorees, artists and members of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, under the leadership of Trump, as its chairman.
The Kennedy Center announcement did not announce the program’s broadcast partner for 2026. CBS has broadcast the Kennedy Center Honors every year since they were first presented in 1978 through 2025. The Kennedy Center announcement did indicate that Boeing is the exclusive underwriter of the Kennedy Center Honors Gala. Delta Air Lines is the official airline; Tiffany & Co. is the official medallion partner.
The 2025 honorees, which, Trump boasted, he played a large role in selecting, were country icon George Strait, theatrical rock veterans KISS, Broadway star Michael Crawford, disco star Gloria Gaynor and actor-director Sylvester Stallone. (Tom Cruise reportedly declined the honor last year, due to “scheduling conflicts.”)
By way of comparison, the 2024 honorees, the last class to receive the honors under President Joe Biden, were filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, iconic rock band Grateful Dead, singer-songwriter-guitarist Bonnie Raitt, jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and The Apollo Theater in Harlem, the first venue to receive the honor.
Monday’s announcement of the 2026 Kennedy Center Honorees is coming much later in the year than last year’s announcement, which was made on Aug. 13, 2025.
The 49th annual Kennedy Center Honors will be held on Dec. 7 — the same date as last year’s event — but at a new and much larger venue. The honors have been held in the 2,347-capacity Opera House of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts since 1978, when they were first presented, but will move to Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C., for this year’s event.
The awards will continue to be called the Kennedy Center Honors, with President Trump’s name not appearing. The names of both the venue and the awards have been a source of considerable tension in the past year.
The Kennedy Center opened in 1971 as a memorial to President Kennedy, who had been assassinated in Dallas eight years earlier. The Kennedy Center Honors were first presented in 1978. The inaugural class consisted of contralto Marian Anderson, dancer-actor-singer Fred Astaire, choreographer George Balanchine, composer Richard Rodgers and pianist Arthur Rubinstein.
While the focus in the early years was on fine arts — heavy on classical and opera — over the decades, it has broadened to also include more popular forms of music. In 1987, B.B. King became the first blues artist to be inducted. Other performers who were the first in their genres to be honored were Roy Acuff for country in 1991, Aretha Franklin for R&B in 1994, Pete Seeger for folk in 1994, Bob Dylan for rock in 1997, Gloria Estefan for Latin music in 2017 and LL Cool J for rap in 2017.
The Kennedy Center Honors have long been regarded as one of the year’s classiest TV programs. The show has won 24 Primetime Emmys, including 10 awards as the year’s top variety program.
Here’s a capsule summary of each of the 2026 Kennedy Center Honorees.
