Kennedy Center Honors 2026: The Five Honorees

Photo by Gabriel Hutchinson, cropped (CC BY-SA)

The Lowdown

The Kennedy Center named its 49th class of honorees on Monday: Paul Anka, David Foster, Andy Garcia, David Mamet and Barbara Mandrell (Kennedy Center; AP; Billboard). They’ll be celebrated Dec. 7, but not at the Kennedy Center. For the first time since the Honors began in 1978, the gala moves to Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center; Billboard; WJLA). The building itself has been closed since September for what officials say is about $257 million in repairs (WJLA).

Key Takeaways

The five: singer-songwriter Paul Anka, producer-composer David Foster, actor-director Andy Garcia, playwright David Mamet and country star Barbara Mandrell (Kennedy Center).
The gala is Dec. 7 at Capital One Arena, the first Honors held outside the Kennedy Center’s 2,347-seat Opera House (Kennedy Center; Billboard).
President Trump, the center’s board chairman, is quoted in the release; this year’s class was announced by press release, not at a live event like last year (Kennedy Center; Billboard).
No TV partner has been announced yet. CBS aired every Honors from 1978 through 2025 (Billboard).
Ages run from Garcia, 70, to Anka, 85. Three of the five were born outside the U.S.: Anka and Foster in Canada and Garcia in Cuba (Billboard).

The Story

The Kennedy Center announced the class with a press release Monday, Nov. 2, calling the five “lifetime achievement Honorees” picked on the recommendation of its Special Honors Advisory Committee, which is chaired by President Donald Trump (Kennedy Center). “We are recognizing amazing artists whose lifelong work has shaped American culture and inspired generations of audiences,” Trump said in the release (Kennedy Center; Billboard).

Andy Garcia, David Foster, Paul Anka, David Mamet and Barbara Mandrell have been named the 2026 Kennedy Center Honors recipients.

The honorees will be celebrated Dec. 7 at Washington, D.C.’s Capital One Arena
— Variety (@Variety) November 2, 2026

Who’s in the class

Paul Anka, 85, became a star at 15 when “Diana” hit No. 1 in 1957. He wrote the English lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson theme (Kennedy Center; Billboard).
David Foster, 77, is a 16-time Grammy winner who produced hits for Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand and Michael Bublé, among many others (Kennedy Center; Billboard).
Andy Garcia, 70, earned an Oscar nomination for The Godfather Part III. He was in all three Ocean’s films and recently appeared in Season 2 of Landman, and he premiered his directing project Diamond at Cannes this year (Kennedy Center; Billboard).
David Mamet, 78, won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for drama for Glengarry Glen Ross and wrote The Untouchables, The Verdict and Wag the Dog (Kennedy Center; Billboard).
Barbara Mandrell, 77, was the first two-time CMA Entertainer of the Year and is a Country Music Hall of Famer. She’s the fourth female country artist to get the Honors, after Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire (Kennedy Center; Billboard).

Anka and Foster go way back: Foster co-wrote Anka’s 1983 hit “Hold Me ’Til the Mornin’ Comes” (Billboard). Garcia and Mamet have a shared credit too, since Garcia co-starred in Mamet’s The Untouchables (Kennedy Center).

The honorees react

Anka posted his thanks on X a few hours after the announcement (@paulanka on X; Billboard). Garcia thanked the center on Facebook, and Mandrell, who has kept a low profile since retiring in 1997, called it “one of the greatest honors of my life” on Instagram (Billboard).

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.

#KennedyCenterHonors pic.twitter.com/GU0Oa5IVhH
— Paul Anka (@paulanka) November 2, 2026

Why the show is moving

The Kennedy Center’s board voted to close the building in September, citing structural safety concerns and money problems, and said it could stay closed for two years (WJLA). AP reports the move offsite comes as Trump fights in federal court over his plans to renovate the building and add his name to it (AP). Billboard notes that the awards are still being called the Kennedy Center Honors, without Trump’s name (Billboard).

The center says it will “transform the arena” to keep the feel of the traditional ceremony (Kennedy Center). Moving from a 2,347-seat opera house to an NBA and NHL arena is a big change in scale, and the announcement came months later than last year’s, which was made on Aug. 13, 2025 (Billboard).

Our Take: A Classy Class in a Very Weird Year

This is opinion. On paper, this is a crowd-pleasing class. Anka and Foster wrote and produced a big chunk of the adult-contemporary songbook, Mandrell is a real country pioneer, Mamet changed how movie dialogue sounds, and Garcia is still working at a high level. Last year’s KISS, George Strait and Sylvester Stallone lineup felt hand-picked for a party. (Stallone has been on our radar lately for Sylvester Stallone’s memoir, The Steps.) This year’s reads more like the old-school Honors.

The real story is the venue. The Honors always worked because they felt intimate, with honorees in the box and peers singing their songs a few feet away. An arena can be dressed up, but it’s a harder room for a tribute. And with no TV partner named yet, the biggest open question is whether anyone at home will see it.

The Background

For more stars-and-politics crossover, see our pop culture guide to today’s midterms. Find more awards and music coverage, and keep up with the rest of our Celebrity section.

Our hero image shows Andy Garcia, with actor Danny Huston, at a photocall for Diamond at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.