Canada's Lorne Michaels, Joni Mitchell among those celebrated at Kennedy Center Honors

U.S. President Joe Biden celebrated artists including Canada’s Joni Mitchell and Lorne Michaels on Sunday at the Kennedy Center Honors, bringing back presidential participation in the annual ceremony skipped by Republican Donald Trump.

Motown founder Berry Gordy and singers Bette Midler and Justino Díaz  rounded out the group of artists selected by the Kennedy Center for top honours this year at a show that had been upended by politics and the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden, a Democrat who took over from Trump in January, held a black-tie ceremony for the five honorees earlier in the evening, the sort of glamorous