Fiddling while the organization around him is burning from the scandals surrounding Benghazi, the IRS, and AP, Barack Obama is hosting another concert in his “In Performance at the White House” series. On May 22, Obama and his wife will honor singer-songwriter Carole King in the East Room of the White house, who will be given the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
The prize has been given to musical luminaries Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and Burt Bacharach and Hal David in the past; King will be the first woman honored. Other musical stars will perform in addition to King, including Billy Joel, James Taylor, Gloria Estefan, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sandé, and Trisha Yearwood.
In 2002, King joined Democrat representatives from California who had dinner with Fidel Castro in Havana defying the Bush Administration’s insistence that Cuba-U.S. relations would not warm until Cuba embraced democracy and human rights. The dinner lasted from 9 p.m. Sunday until about 4:30 a.m. Monday. King warmed Castro’s heart by singing “You’ve Got A Friend” to him; later, she added a new song she had written, “Love Makes the World.”
King blathered, “My songs were a message I wanted to bring here. I came here to learn because my life, my work, is all about communication. We should be setting an example of good will.”