Andy Garcia, David Foster, Paul Anka, David Mamet and Barbara Mandrell have been selected as the recipients of the 2026 Kennedy Center Honors. The announcement was made Monday by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Board of Trustees and President Trump.
The honors recognize lifetime achievement across music, dance, theater, opera, motion pictures and television. This year’s ceremony will be held on Dec. 7 at Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
“We are recognizing amazing artists whose lifelong work has shaped American culture and inspired generations of audiences,” Trump said in a statement, adding that the center was proud to honor the class and continue a tradition spanning nearly five decades.
Garcia is being recognized for his work as an actor, director and music producer. He received an Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for his supporting performance as Vincent Corleone in The Godfather: Part III. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has received lifetime achievement awards from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors and the Imagen Foundation. This year, Diamond, a film he wrote, directed and stars in, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Garcia co-wrote its score with Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval.
Foster has won 16 Grammy Awards, an Emmy and a Golden Globe, and has received three Oscar nominations. The composer has worked with artists including Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Andrea Bocelli, Chicago, Rod Stewart and Stevie Wonder. He also composed the music for Boop! The Musical, which opened on Broadway in 2025 and is scheduled for a national U.S. tour.
Anka, a member of both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, scored his first hit with “Diana” in 1957, when he was 15. He later wrote “My Way” for Frank Sinatra and the theme for The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, which became television’s longest-running theme. His writing credits also include songs for Connie Francis, Lesley Gore and Buddy Holly. Anka released his latest album, Inspirations of Life and Love, this year.
Mamet is being honored for a career spanning more than five decades as a playwright, screenwriter, director and author. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Glengarry Glen Ross in 1984 and received Oscar nominations for The Verdict and Wag the Dog. His film work also includes writing and directing Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner and State and Main, alongside numerous novels and nonfiction books.
Mandrell began playing accordion and steel guitar as a child and was touring with The Johnny Cash Show as a teenager. Her hits included “Sleeping Single in a Double Bed,” “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right” and “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.” She won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award twice and was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Musicians Hall of Fame. She also received the Academy of Country Music’s Pioneer Award in 2000.
Sources: Rolling Stone.