who were the performers at the kennedy center honors

The performers at the most recent Kennedy Center Honors (the 48th Honors, held in December 2025 and airing on CBS/Paramount+) have not been fully listed in a single, authoritative public source yet, so only partial lineups are clearly confirmable. However, the honorees themselves are known: Sylvester Stallone, Michael Crawford, Gloria Gaynor, George Strait, and KISS, and the show featured tribute performances built around each of them.

Known 2025 honorees and tributes

These are the artists being honored, who are the focus of the tribute performers and speeches throughout the show.

• Sylvester Stallone – honored for his decades of work as an actor, writer, and director behind characters like Rocky Balboa and John Rambo.

• Michael Crawford – celebrated for his legendary musical theater career, especially originating the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera.

• Gloria Gaynor – disco and gospel icon, best known for “I Will Survive” and her long-running influence across five decades.

• George Strait – “King of Country Music,” honored for his hit-packed, multi‑decade country career.

• KISS (Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, Ace Frehley) – recognized as one of America’s most successful rock bands, with a huge touring and recording legacy.

Each honoree’s segment traditionally includes:

• A series of short speeches or video tributes by fellow artists.

• One or more musical numbers relevant to the honoree’s work (for example, other singers performing the honoree’s songs, or orchestral suites referencing their film work).

Because detailed, segment‑by‑segment performer credits for the 2025 broadcast have not yet been fully cataloged by reliable public listings, not every singer, band, or presenter who appeared on stage can be named with certainty at this time.

How the show typically structures performers

While the full 2025 roster is still incomplete publicly, the Kennedy Center Honors format is very consistent year to year.

• A host (or narrator voice) introduces each honoree’s segment, often preceded by a short film about their life and work.

• Multiple guest performers then appear to sing, play, or dance in tribute—for example, covering the honoree’s signature songs, performing medleys, or staging scenes associated with their films or shows.

• Fellow stars or close collaborators give brief speeches, sometimes mixed into the musical segment.

For earlier years where the broadcast has long been available, those performers are usually identified in network press releases or the Kennedy Center’s full program notes, but that level of detail is not yet fully posted for the 2025 show.

What can be said reliably right now

Given what is publicly and clearly documented:

• The honorees are definitively known and verified across multiple outlets (Stallone, Crawford, Gaynor, Strait, KISS).

• The format guarantees that numerous contemporary musicians and actors appeared as performers and presenters, but their complete names and song lists have not yet been fully compiled in accessible, trustworthy listings.

If you want an exact, segment‑by‑segment answer like “who sang which song for each honoree,” the most precise way is to:

1. Watch the official CBS/Paramount+ broadcast and check the end credits, where performers are listed by segment.

2. Look for an updated program or PDF on the Kennedy Center’s official Honors page as they sometimes post full artist lists after the telecast.

At this moment, any attempt to give a full, exhaustive list of every performer on stage at the latest Kennedy Center Honors would be partly speculative and could miss or mis‑identify people, which would not be accurate or fair to the artists involved.

Bottom note: Information gathered from public sources and news coverage available on the internet and portrayed here.