See sparkling Dionne Warwick and Queen Latifah tributes at Kennedy Center Honors

Dionne Warwick with fellow honorees Barry Gibb, left, and Renée Fleming at the 46th Kennedy Center Honors.

A six-time Grammy winner who broke down barriers and sold more than 100 million records. A hip-hop pioneer and multi-hyphenate entertainer of stage and screen.

The 46th Kennedy Center Honors celebrated Dionne Warwick and Queen Latifah, two profound talents from New Jersey.

Joining Warwick and Latifah at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. were fellow 2023 honorees Barry Gibb, Renée Fleming and Billy Crystal.

The honors, two-plus hours of music, dance, comedy and celebrity appearances attended by dignitaries including President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, were filmed earlier in December and aired Wednesday night on CBS. (The show is streaming on Paramount+.)

Here are some highlights from the tributes to Warwick and Latifah, plus some other Jersey-centric moments from the show.

The Kennedy Center honorees for 2023: Queen Latifah, Barry Gibb, Renée Fleming, Billy Crystal and Dionne Warwick.

Dionne Warwick

To start the honors, Debbie Allen, a 2021 Kennedy Center honoree, introduced the celebration of Warwick.

She called the South Orange talent “one of the most successful singers of all time, knocking down barriers, crashing glass ceilings with 75 charted hit songs.”

Allen noted that Warwick, who has released 38 studio albums, became the first African American vocalist to win a Grammy award in the pop category (the honor was Warwick’s first Grammy, for ”Do You Know The Way to San Jose” in 1969).

Dionne Warwick with Barry Gibb, Renée Fleming, Billy Crystal, Queen Latifah, first lady Jill Biden and President Joe Biden at the Kennedy Center Honors.

“Dionne, your voice was the soundtrack of our lives,” she told Warwick, 83, who was all smiles in the audience.

Country singer Mickey Guyton joined The Spinners for a performance of “Then Came You,” Warwick’s No. 1 1974 song with the group.

EGOT winner Jennifer Hudson narrated a biographical montage dedicated to the Grammy-winning music icon, which touched on the discovery of Warwick’s talent for singing in church when she was a child and her fruitful collaboration with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, starting with her 1962 hit “Don’t Make Me Over.”

Tony, Grammy and Emmy winner Cynthia Erivo sang another of Warwick’s songs with Bacharach and David, “Alfie” (1966; inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008), with gusto and grace.

Ego Nwodim, whose impression of Warwick on “Saturday Night Live” earned the ringing endorsement of Warwick herself, recalled singing “What the World Needs Now is Love” with the star on “SNL.”

Warwick became a hot topic early in the COVID-19 pandemic for her sharp, funny retorts and commentary on social media. She was crowned queen of Twitter and made many new young fans.

Her music has demonstrated enviable staying power, but at the Kennedy Center, both Nwodim and Clive Davis (who maintained Warwick could sing anything) said that no matter what, Warwick would always be relevant.

Gladys Knight, 79, a 2022 Kennedy Center honoree and friend of Warwick (who joined her in 1985 alongside Stevie Wonder and Elton John for the No. 1 song “That’s What Friends Are For,” which raised money for AIDS research) delivered a spirited performance of Warwick’s 1967 hit “I Say a Little Prayer.”

In a show that drew from multiple generations, Chlöe Bailey also sang Warwick’s 1964 hit song “Walk on By.”

Queen Latifah

Latifah, born Dana Owens, became the first female hip-hop artist to receive a Kennedy Center honor.

The tribute to Latifah, 53, which arrived at the end of hip-hop’s 50th anniversary year, started with actor Kerry Washington reflecting on the rapper’s East Orange roots.

The breakout hip-hop star became a Grammy-winning artist as well as an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning and Oscar-nominated actor.

Queen Latifah with Dionne Warwick, Renée Fleming, Billy Crystal, first lady Jill Biden, President Joe Biden and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff at the Kennedy Center Honors.

Latifah’s father, Lance Owens, was among the family members telling her story in a video montage for the show.

The retrospective included career highlights like starring roles in the CBS series “The Equalizer” and Fox’s “Living Single,” among many other TV shows and movies.

Missy Elliott pays tribute to Queen Latifah at the Kennedy Center Honors.

MC Lyte, Monie Love, D-Nice, Yo-Yo and the 5-year-old rapper VanVan took the stage for performances of “Ladies First” (1989), from Latifah’s debut album, “All Hail the Queen,” and the Grammy-winning “U.N.I.T.Y.” (1993).

Recently inducted Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Missy Elliott talked about the significance of seeing Latifah on TV when she was young.

Her introduction to the Jersey talent arrived with the “Ladies First” music video, which forever changed her perception of what was possible.

“What Queen Latifah has taught us is unity, to believe in yourself and to love a Black woman from infinity to infinity,” Elliott said, referencing the Jersey rapper’s lyrics. “The culture, myself, we thank you.”

Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist Rapsody performed a tribute to Latifah, her mentor.

Yo-Yo, Monie Love, MC Lyte and VanVan perform a tribute to Queen Latifah at the Kennedy Center Honors.

“Not just any Jersey girl, she is our queen,” she rapped. “A vision to behold on any size screen.”

Then she broke into Latifah’s 1993 song “Just Another Day,” which name-checks several Jersey addresses.

And that wasn’t all.

The Clark Sisters also paid homage to Latifah, who produced “The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel,” their 2020 Lifetime biopic, with Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliott.

The gospel greats soared in a performance with Newark’s Rev. Stef & Jubilation choir.

Jersey love for Billy Crystal

Lin-Manuel Miranda, a 2018 Kennedy Center honoree and Tony, Grammy, Emmy and Pulitzer Prize-winning star of Broadway and film, delivered a Billy Crystal-style song and dance routine.

Crystal, 75, is known for performing the winning numbers during his many Oscars hosting gigs, and he seemed to revel in Miranda’s take.

The performance, set to the melody of “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music,” boasted piano accompaniment from Jersey’s own Marc Shaiman.

Shaiman, a Grammy and Tony-winning (”Hairspray”) composer, also won an Emmy for co-writing Crystal’s Oscar musical numbers.

Shaiman, 64, a Newark native who grew up in Scotch Plains, also composed the music for Crystal’s classic rom-com “When Harry Met Sally” (1989) as well as his movies “City Slickers” (1991) and “Mr. Saturday Night” (1992). (”When Harry Met Sally” star Meg Ryan and director Rob Reiner honored Crystal at the Kennedy Center.)

EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg, another big talent with a Jersey connection, delivered a heartfelt tribute to Crystal.

Whoopi Goldberg celebrates Billy Crystal at the Kennedy Center Honors.

Goldberg, who lives in Llewellyn Park, West Orange, recalled meeting Crystal while working on HBO’s “Comic Relief.”

She became visibly emotional talking about how Robin Williams should have been standing with her onstage to honor their friend.

“You are my family, you’re my big brother,” Goldberg, 68, told Crystal. “And you have no idea what an honor it is to see you get your due. I love you. You’re a mensch, you’re a national treasure.”

The Kennedy Center Honors are streaming on Paramount+.

Stories by Amy Kuperinsky

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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup.

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