Marvin Gaye’s music and legacy will be celebrated at What’s Going On NOW, a tribute concert at The Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) on June 16 and 17 in Washington, D.C. The back-to-back concerts are scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
Conducted by Principal Pops conductor Steven Reineke, the NSO will be joined by Luke James, Michelle Williams, Joshua Henry, Cory Henry, and Emily King.
Each artist will perform songs from across Gaye’s discography accompanied by an orchestra led by Reineke. Among them will be every song from Gaye’s pioneering album, What’s Going On, released over 50 years ago in 1971.
This upcoming run of concerts comes as a full-circle moment. Gaye, the hometown hero, previously performed What’s Going On in its entirety for the first and only time in 1972 at the Kennedy Center.
The rare concert was first heard on a 2001 CD as part of an extended deluxe edition of What’s Going On: Live.
Eighteen years later, the show was pressed on double LP for the first time, along with rare photos from the performance and new liner notes by Gaye’s biographer Davis Ritz.
That same year, Motown Records, which put out What’s Going On: Live, shared an official video for the title track.
What’s Going On celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021. Throughout that year, artists from the likes of Lucky Daye, H.E.R. and Salaam Remi recorded and issued their versions of songs from the landmark album.
Tickets are available for What’s Going On NOW A Tribute to Marvin Gaye at kennedy-center.org.
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