According to WTOP,No Doubt will be performing The Beatles’ ”Hello,Goodbye” as part of a tribute to Paul McCartney at the Kennedy Center Honors tonight!!
By BRETT ZONGKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – When The Beatles were storming America, Oprah Winfrey had the band’s poster on her bedroom wall, Merle Haggard was free from prison, Jerry Herman was making Broadway sing and Bill T. Jones was not yet a dancer but growing up in a migrant labor camp.
On Sunday, these leading artists who followed divergent paths since the 1960s joined Paul McCartney to receive the Kennedy Center Honors. They heard accolades from President Barack Obama.
“Although the honorees on this stage each possess a staggering amount of talent, the truth is, they aren’t being recognized tonight simply because of their careers as great lyricists or songwriters or dancers or entertainers,” Obama said. “Instead, they’re being honored for their unique ability to bring us closer together and to capture something larger about who we are _ not just as Americans, but as human beings.”
Stars also were performing as part of the nation’s top prize for those who define U.S. culture through the arts. The president and first lady Michelle Obama had arrived and former Secretary of State Colin Powell was sitting with them in their box.
Gwen Stefani and her band, No Doubt, were going to perform the Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye.”
“It’s so hard doing someone else’s song, especially a genius,” Stefani said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted a dinner Saturday for the honorees, along with visiting celebrities, including Stefani, Julia Roberts, Claire Danes, Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. The guests also included veteran entertainers Carol Channing, Angela Lansbury and Sidney Poitier.
Clinton marveled at the diverse “genres and generations” of artists.
“I am writing a cable about it, which I’m sure you’ll find soon on your closest website,” she joked after a week of dealing with fallout from the WikiLeaks release of confidential diplomatic dispatches.
She also confessed to “several waves of teen girl hysteria” over The Beatles during her youth. Clinton said McCartney’s life had connected people around the world.
Channing said she was excited to perform for Herman.
“He’s going to cry, I just know it,” said Channing, who has been corresponding with the president to press for funding for arts teachers.
The former Beatle, making his second visit to Washington this year for a culture award, said the admiration is mutual. In June, he won the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from the Library of Congress.
Here is the original version-cannot wait to hear ND’s performance of it when the event is televised on CBS on Dec.28!