“Amy also taught me that it was possible to be funny, irreverent and Christian all at the same,” said Crow.įive ballet dancers took to the stage to honor León, who left Cuba as a refugee in 1967 her passport was stamped “Cancelado” when she left the country. Crow talked about Grant’s influence on her when she was a young college student. In Grant’s, her children talked about their mother’s influence on them. He cited Knight’s “roots in country music” before launching into the classic.Įach artist was introduced by a video compilation showing snippets of their lives. Knight - usually with her backup singers, The Pips - has recorded dozens of albums with such classic hits as “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “Midnight Train to Georgia.” The challenge of singing that classic in front of the woman who made it famous fell to country music superstar Garth Brooks, who is a Kennedy Center honoree in his own right. ![]() ![]() “I once heard Gladys sing the ABCs and I thought I was in church,” he said. “I am honored to honor you tonight.”Īctor and hip-hop star LL Cool J said that whenever Knight sings she connects with people. “We do everything together,” LaBelle said. Standing on a stage lit by a massive sign reading “Gladys,” LaBelle called Knight her “everything,” saying they had been friends for six decades and had seen each other through laughter and tears. But it was Clooney’s father who probably had the strongest praise, telling the crowd and his son, sitting in the balcony between León and U2’s Bono, “George’s best and most important work is still ahead of him. Cheadle highlighted Clooney’s philanthropic work. in 1968 - gave his father all his toy guns.ĭamon took the funny road, joking about how Clooney once stole then-President Bill Clinton’s stationery and wrote notes to fellow actors on it. The actor’s father, Nick Clooney, told stories of a young George, including the time the 7-year-old - heartbroken over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. After an introduction that alternated between funny and heartfelt, she turned to a set designed to look like a smoky bar - the type Clooney might enjoy. “If we had the chance to do it all again, tell me, would we…?” sings Knight, which prompts someone in the audience to instantly fire back, “Hell, yes!”Īt Birmingham Symphony Hall, 19 June, then touring until 30 June.Roberts set the tone by coming onstage with a dress emblazoned with photos of Clooney. There’s a lovely moment during The Way We Were. ![]() Knight has enough treasure in her own catalogue, and her touching delivery of the Jim Weatherly-penned Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye), about a couple “living a lie”, brings the house down. Signature hit Midnight Train to Georgia, unaffected by rail disputes, has a sprightly new arrangement.Īn audience singalong of Hey Jude marks Paul McCartney’s birthday, although the show could perhaps lose the similar treatment of Queen’s We Are the Champions. M-People surely cribbed from 1978’s Come Back and Finish What You Started, while 1989’s Licence to Kill is a stellar Bond theme. Gladys Knight and the Pips also recorded I Heard It Through the Grapevine before her friend Marvin Gaye, while You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me and Baby Don’t Change Your Mind epitomise slinky, pre-disco 70s soul. The 1969 Motown single The Nitty Gritty segues into the Jackson 5’s Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) – it was Knight, after all, who urged the label to sign them. “She’s incredible,” mutters the lady to my left, while numerous others film whole songs on their phones. “You may not know me personally but you’re all my friends,” she tells us. Few performers have such a warm rapport with their audience.
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