Jimmy Carter 100th birthday concert: list of artists and celebrities who participated

Jimmy Carter is the longest-lived US president in history, a title he’s held since March 2019, but this year he will cross a the milestone of celebrating his 100th birthday. Two weeks prior to his actual birthday on Tuesday, October 1, the Carter Center hosted a star-studded benefit concert.

The event took place at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, the oldest concert hall in the city, where the performers, celebrities and community leaders paid tribute, both in person and in video messages, to the life-long legacy of the 39th President of the United States. While Carter will spend his centennial birthday with family in Plains, Georgia, his hometown where he has been receiving hospice care since February 2023, Georgia Public Broadcasting will air the musical event ‘Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song’.

Jimmy Carter 100th birthday concert: list of artists and celebrities who participated

While not everyone that would have liked to could attend in person the event for the winner of the 2002 Nobel peace prize, those that couldn’t sent video messages congratulating Carter. They included the current US President, Joe Biden, as well as former presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama. Additionally, comedian Jon Stewart and musical artists Bob Dylan and Dave Matthews, among others, sent well wishes to the former president.

Some of the celebrities that spoke at the event included Bernice King, daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and civil rights icon and former Ambassador to the UN Andrew Young. Renée Zellweger was also there to honor the former president along with former Atlanta Braves players Dale Murphy and Terry Pendleton.

At the Fox Theater guests were treated to live performances from an eclectic group of artists including Angélique Kidjo, BeBe Winans, Carlene Carter, Chuck Leavell, D-Nice, Drive-By Truckers, Duane Betts, Eric Church, GROUPLOVE, India Arie, Lalah Hathaway, The B-52′s, The War And Treaty, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus.

There was also a video montage interspersed during the benefit concert with images of famous musicians visiting the White House while the Democrat resided there between 1977 and 1981. Carlene Carter shared how she was “pretty jealous” when her mother June Carter went to visit the then US president who shared the same last name “as I thought so highly of him even back then,” she said.

“Both [her husband Johnny Cash] and June had suggested more than once that we were, in fact, kin, and the fact that both he and mom had that Carter ‘sparkle’ makes me think that they were related,” she added. “When Jimmy Carter was our president, it was evident to me that he only wanted the best for our country and for all humankind.  I look at him as a very special, spiritual soul, so when people ask if we’re related, I always respond, ‘I hope so.’”