Bruce Springsteen and Gladys Knight decorated by Joe Biden at the White House

A series of artists receive a “National Medal of the Arts” at the White House on Tuesday, March 21, from the hands of United States President Joe Biden. Bruce Springsteen is among the recipients of this decoration, the highest honor awarded to artists by the US government.

Second White House decoration for the “Boss”

“Bruce Springsteen’s music celebrates our triumphs, heals our wounds, gives us hope. She captures that indomitable spirit that defines America“, justifies, lyrically, the White House about the singer of Born in the USA. This is the second decoration that the “Boss” receives at the White House, after the “Presidential Medal of Freedom” presented to him by President Barack Obama in 2016.

Bruce Springsteen is not the only decorated artist since will also be, in particular, the legend of the soul Gladys Knight, the fashion designer Vera Wang, the actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who played the vice-president of the series Veep) and Puerto Rican singer José Feliciano. Most of these are accolades dating back to 2021, as the White House had to postpone many ceremonies due to the pandemic.

Ann Patchett and Colson Whitehead honored with another medal

The American president also decorates another group of personalities with the “Medal of the Humanities” on Tuesday, which rewards individuals with “encouraged citizens to get involved in history, literature, the study of languages, philosophy.” Among the latter, the author Ann Patchett, the academic and Native American activist Henrietta Mann, or the novelist Colson Whitehead, a rare writer to have twice won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, for Underground Railroad (2016) then Nickel Boys (2019).