On May 22, the 43rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors were place, honoring five people or organizations for their artistic contributions to American culture. Dick Van Dyke, musician Joan Baez, actress and choreographer Debbie Allen, violinist Midori, and Garth Brooks were the 2021 recipients.
At a ceremony commemorating these incredible luminaries, Derek Hough, Vanessa Hudgens, Pentatonix, Gladys Knight, Emmylou Harris, Jimmie Allen, Yo-Yo Ma, and Kelly Clarkson took the stage. On Sunday, June 6th, CBS will broadcast the event live, and Paramount+ will stream it as well.
Since she has known Garth Brooks for a long time and he has made a few recent appearances on Clarkson’s talk show, it was her duty to pay tribute to him. In some way, her rendition of his already poignant song “The Dance” took it to a new level.
Clarkson stood on stage in Washington, D.C., singing the song Brooks released almost 30 years ago, her voice trembling intermittently.
The Emmy-winning talk show host told Brooks late last year that “The Dance” had been helping her get over her divorce.
At the time, she described her divorce by saying, “There are a lot of books and people always give you stuff to help, especially when you have kids and stuff.” “And there’s a lot of shame and guilt.”
Clarkson went on, “I couldn’t quite describe the feeling.” You don’t know what to say because it didn’t go as planned, but you don’t want to ruin it by claiming that [relationship] isn’t important or counts. Anyway, when I was listening to my music, “The Dance” began to play. “No, that’s the problem,” I replied. That’s all.
Clarkson’s whole performance of the well-known song was aired on CBS’s Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night, June 6. She started it a cappella before the music director joined her on the keyboard. The cameras kept rolling to Brooks as he said, “That’s so great,” throughout the performance.
At one point, Brooks started crying, and when Clarkson reached the final note, he jumped up, took off his hat, and said, “Damn!”
Watch the full version of Clarkson’s performance of “The Dance” below.
