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Bonnie Raitt is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose unique style blends blues, R&B, rock, and pop. After 20 years as a cult favorite, she broke through to the top in the early 90s with her Grammy Award®–winning albums, Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw, which featured hits, “Something To Talk About” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” among others. The 13-time Grammy® winner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and Rolling Stone named the slide guitar ace one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” and one of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time.”

2023 kicked off with Raitt earning three Grammy Awards® at the 65th Annual ceremony; Song Of The Year and Best American Roots Song for the title track of her most recent album Just Like That…, and Best Americana Performance for “Made Up Mind.” Raitt was also honored with the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award in the year prior. Raitt has been on tour for most of 2023 and 2024 with stops in the U.S., Australia, the UK, Ireland, and Canada.

2022 was an incredible year for Raitt with a 75-date headlining U.S. tour; releasing her critically acclaimed 21st album Just Like That…, on her independent label, Redwing Records; receiving the Icon Award at the 2022’s Billboard Women In Music Awards, and seeing her breakthrough album, Nick of Time, added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. Just Like That… was #1 on six Billboard charts the week of release and was perched at #1 on the Americana Radio Album Chart for 10 consecutive weeks. The album’s first single, “Made Up Mind,” remained in the top three spots on the Americana Radio Singles Chart for 17 weeks.

As known for her lifelong commitment to social activism as she is for her music, Raitt has long been involved with the environmental movement, performing concerts around oil, nuclear power, mining, water, and forest protection since the mid-‘70s. She was a founding member of MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy), which produced the historic concerts, album and film NO NUKES (1979,) as well as a founding member of The Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which works for royalty reform and recognition of generations of pioneer R&B artists. She continues to work on safe energy issues in addition to environmental protection, social justice, Native American and human rights, as well as artist's rights and music education.

Recent Kennedy Center history:

Bonnie Raitt made cast appearances for Kennedy Center Honors tributes for Mavis Staples (2016) and Buddy Guy (2012).