2019 Kennedy Center Honors: Carrie Underwood Tributes Linda Ronstadt + More
Linda Ronstadt was honored as part of 2019's Kennedy Center Honors event on Sunday night (Dec. 8), with country superstar Carrie Underwood among the artists paying tribute to the pop-country icon.
Underwood was one of two performers to honor Ronstadt in song. The star offered up renditions of Ronstadt's "Blue Bayou" and "When Will I Be Loved," Washington, D.C.'s WTOP reports, after Ronstadt's good friend, Don Henley, lauded his former boss (Henley and Glenn Frey were in Ronstadt's band before forming the Eagles).
“Outwardly, she had a youthful vulnerability," Henley shared, "but on the inside, she was a powerful and determined woman who knew where she was going."
Country singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris — who, along with Dolly Parton, created the Trio and Trio II albums with Ronstadt — praised Ronstadt as a "fierce artist who set the bar high for the rest of us." Added Harris, "She had the most stunningly beautiful voice of our generation."
Trisha Yearwood, too, performed two of Ronstadt's songs: "You're No Good" and "I Don't Know Much," the latter as a duet with Aaron Neville. Yearwood's husband, Garth Brooks, and Thomas Rhett — who was part of a tribute to the television show Sesame Street — were also among the country artists who attended the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors. Flip through the gallery below to see photos of them on the pre-show red carpet.
In addition to Ronstadt and Sesame Street, 2019's Kennedy Center honorees are actor Sally Field, Michael Tilson Thomas and Earth, Wind & Fire. Ronstadt garnered headlines following Saturday night's (Dec. 7) State Department dinner for this year's honorees, after she chided Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his "enabling" of President Donald Trump.
See Carrie Underwood + Others at the 2019 Kennedy Center Honors