Mariah Carey to Receive The Music Icon Award at This Year’s theGrio Awards

Mariah Carey is set to earn another honor…

The 54-year-old half-Venezuelan American Grammy-winning singer will be among the honorees during this year’s Byron Allen Presents theGrio Awards special.

Mariah CareyThe awards show celebrates excellence in film, music, comedy, television, sports, philanthropy, business, fashion, social justice, environmental justice, education, and the cultural icons and innovators whose contributions positively impact America. The television special pays tribute to and amplifies the history makers, change agents and artists who define and influence our world, according to organizers.

Carey, who holds the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles by a solo artist with 19, will be honored with The Music Icon Award.

Co-hosted by The Talk‘s Sheryl Underwood and comedian Roy Wood Jr., theGrio Awards will air on Saturday, November 25 from 8:00 – 10:00 pm on CBS and will stream live on Paramount+.

Other honorees include Denzel Washington (The Film Icon award), Eddie Murphy (The Icon award), Don Cheadle (Environmental Champion Icon award) and Misty Copeland (The Trailblazer Icon award).

The special also features musical performances by Boyz II Men, Jennifer Hudson, Coco Jones, Patti LaBelle and Smokey Robinson. Greg Phillinganes serves as musical director, and DJ Kiss is the D.J.

“I created ‘theGrio Awards’ to celebrate and amplify African-American excellence and the incredible champions from other communities who truly support us,” said Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. “As a child, strong, positive African-American icons such as Berry Gordy, Jr., Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King, Jr. helped me see myself differently, and changed the trajectory of my life. Celebrating and amplifying iconic individuals is something we can never do enough of, especially for our children.”

Byron Allen Presents theGrio Awards is co-produced by Allen Media Group and Backhand Productions.

Justino Diaz Among This Year’s Kennedy Center Honors Recipients

It’s an Honors of a lifetime for Justino Diaz.

The 81-year-old Puerto Rican operatic bass-baritone is among the recipients of the Kennedy Center’s Kennedy Center Honors this year, as the organization plans to return the ceremony to its traditional time and format in December.

Justino Diaz

In 1963, Díaz won an annual contest held at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, becoming the first Puerto Rican to obtain such an honor and as a consequence, made his Metropolitan debut in October 1963 in Verdi‘s Rigoletto as Monterone.

Diaz’s big roles throughout his career were in the operas of Mozart, taking on the title role of Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro a total of 27 times in his Met career.

He was also a renowned Scarpia and Iago in his time. He was famously picked by Franco Zeffirelli to take on the villain in his film version of Verdi’s final tragic masterwork; Scarpia was the last role he sang on the Met stage.

In addition to Diaz, the recipients for the December 5 event will be singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, actress and singer Bette MidlerSaturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, and Motown Record founder and producer Berry Gordy.

CBS will broadcast the 44th annual ceremony, and it will be live streamed on Paramount+ and available on demand.

The Kennedy Center Honors traditionally takes place in the first weekend of December, with events at the White House and the State Department preceding the ceremony at the Kennedy Center Opera House. But because of Covid-19, the most recent honors were postponed until May this year, with the ceremony spread out over several days with a mix of indoor and outdoor events, some in person and some pre-taped. Instead of a White House reception, President Joe Biden had a smaller gathering of the honorees.

In a statement, Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter said, “After the challenges and heartbreak of the last many months, and as we celebrate 50 years of the Kennedy Center, I dare add that we are prepared to throw ‘the party to end all parties’ in D.C. on Dec. 5th, feting these extraordinary people and welcoming audiences back to our campus.”