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David Foster (left) and Paul Anka perform during the "Hit Man: David Foster and Friends" concert at the Mandalay Bay Events Center May 9, 2009, in Las Vegas.
Awards
Paul Anka, David Foster & Barbara Mandrell Are Among 2026 Kennedy Center Honorees: Complete List
The 49th annual event will be held in December at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C.
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Paul Anka, David Foster, Barbara Mandrell, Andy Garcia and David Mamet 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 marks the second time that two honorees were born in Canada. Joni Mitchell and SNL creator Lorne Michaels were both honored in 2021. Garcia is the fourth artist who was born in Cuba to receive the Kennedy Center Honors. Gloria Estefan was honored in 2017, followed by composer Tania León in 2022 and jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval in 2024.
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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.”)
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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.
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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.
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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.
Paul Anka
Anka, 85, has been writing and recording hits for nearly seven decades. His first hits, “Diana” and “You Are My Destiny,” pre-date the inception of the Hot 100 in August 1958. He has had 10 top 10 hits on that chart, including a pair of No. 1 hits more than 15 years apart – “Lonely Boy” and “(You’re) Having My Baby.” He went on to write the English language lyric for Frank Sinatra’s late-career signature song, “My Way,” and the jaunty theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Anka is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. His honors include the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s top honor, the Johnny Mercer Award; BMI’s Icon Award and France’s National Order of Merit.
Anka posted this message on X: “After 70 years of doing what I love and being a part of the fabric of the American culture, I am humbled to receive this prestigious honor.”
David Foster
Foster, 77, is a 16-time Grammy winner. His Grammys include three awards for producer of the year, non-classical; three for album of the year; and two for record of the year. He has won Grammys for his work with such wide-ranging artists as Earth, Wind & Fire, Chicago, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion and Michael Bublé.
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Foster won a Golden Globe for co-writing “The Prayer” from Quest for Camelot and a Primetime Emmy for co-writing music for ABC’s The Concert for World Children’s Day. He is three-time Oscar nominee for best original song. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.
While Foster is best known for producing hits for other artists, he had a top 15 hit on the Hot 100 as an artist in 1985 — “Love Theme From St. Elmo’s Fire.” He also had Hot 100 hits as an artist for a collab with Olivia Newton-John in 1986 and the theme song from the 1988 Winter Olympics. In 2008 and 2011, he starred in the PBS specials Hit Man: David Foster and Friends and Hit Man Returns. In 2018, he started touring with his show “An Intimate Evening With David Foster.”
Foster and Anka have a long history: Foster co-wrote Anka’s 1983 hit “Hold Me Till The Morning Comes,” which reached No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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Barbara Mandrell
Mandrell, 77, is the fourth female country artist to receive the Kennedy Center Honors, following Loretta Lynn (2003), Dolly Parton (2006) and Reba McEntire (2018). In 1981, she became the first two-time recipient of entertainer of the year at the Country Music Association Awards. She also won two CMA Awards for female vocalist of the year awards. She was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2009 and is a two-time Grammy winner.
Mandrell landed six No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart: “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed,” “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right,” “Years,” “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool,” “Till You’re Gone” and “One of a Kind Pair of Fools.”
Mandrell and her sisters, Louise and Irlene, had a hit variety TV show in the early 1980s, Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters. In 1997, Barbara Mandrell retired with a final concert titled Barbara Mandrell and the Do-Rites: The Last Dance. It was filmed at the Grand Ole Opry for broadcast on TNN.
Mandrell reacted to her award with a post on Instagram: “Receiving the Kennedy Center Honors is one of the greatest honors of my life. First and foremost, I give thanks to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose grace has guided me throughout my life and career. I’m grateful to my family, the musicians and songwriters who have been part of this journey, and the fans who have supported me through every season. Country music has been a gift to me, and I’m humbled that the songs and performances we shared continue to mean something to people.”
Andy Garcia
Garcia, 70, received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for best supporting actor for The Godfather, Part III. In 2001, he received two Primetime Emmy nominations and his second Golden Globe nomination for HBO’s For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story, which he executive produced and starred in.
Garcia won a Grammy in 2005 as producer of Israel Lopez’s ¡Ahora Sí!, which was voted best traditional tropical Latin album.
In a message on Facebook, Garcia wrote: “Thank you Kennedy Center for this extraordinary honor and privilege. To be a part of a legacy of great artist that have inspired me is a blessing. And congrats to my fellow honorees it’s pleasure to be on your company.”
David Mamet
Mamet, 78, is a two-time Tony Awards nominee for best play, for Glengarry Glen Ross (1984) and Speed-the-Plow (1988). He is also a two-time Oscar nominee for best adapted screenplay for The Verdict (1983) and Wag the Dog (1997) and a two-time Primetime Emmy nominee for writing and directing Phil Spector, a 2013 look at the famous (and infamous) record producer.
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