WASHINGTON, USA (AP) — Oprah Winfrey has come a long way since her childhood years in a Mississippi shack and in public housing with a poster of The Beatles on her bedroom wall. Sunday, she was honoured with Paul McCartney, one of the Beatles she so loved.

Stars from Hollywood, Nashville and Broadway gathered in the nation’s capital to salute Winfrey, McCartney and three others — country singer Merle Haggard, Broadway composer Jerry Herman and dancer Bill T Jones — with the Kennedy Center Honors. The president and first lady Michelle Obama sat with the honorees and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Julia Roberts opened the show with a surprise nod to her friend, Winfrey.

“It’s a universal conversation starter: Did you see what was on Oprah today?” Roberts said. “The first time I heard of a better fitting bra… or a fascinating politician named Barack Obama was on The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

John Travolta took the stage to host a mock version of Winfrey’s show with Barbara Walters as his guest. He recounted a phone call he got from Winfrey when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. She told him to fill his plane with medical supplies and meet her in Louisiana.

Walters said she should get credit for jump-starting the 56-year-old Winfrey’s career. She said the future talk show host once imitated Walters’ style to win a Miss Fire Prevention contest, but developed a style all her own.

Jennifer Hudson sang I’m Here from The Color Purple, which Winfrey produced on Broadway after starring in the film. Hudson was joined by a choir from Winfrey’s alma mater, Tennessee State University.

Alec Baldwin introduced the tribute for McCartney, 68, lamenting the singer’s “long and winding road” to a solo career, being forced to sing in stadiums and requiring police protection.

The former Beatle was making his second visit to Washington this year for a culture award. In June, he won the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from the Library of Congress.

“You know, great things just come in bundles,” he said.

Gwen Stefani, dressed in a gray ‘Fab Four-style’ pant suit, and her band, No Doubt, opened the musical set with Hello, Goodbye. Dave Grohl and Norah Jones sang Maybe I’m Amazed.

In what’s perhaps a first, Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler performed an Abbey Road medley live. Show producer George Stevens Jr said The Beatles never performed it live after the recording was made.

James Taylor and Mavis Staples closed out the show with Let It Be and Hey Jude. They had McCartney — and the president — on their feet the entire time.

When The Beatles were storming America, Haggard, 73, was free from prison and making music, Herman, 79, was making Broadway sing and Jones, 58, was not yet a dancer but growing up in a migrant labour camp.

Since the 1960s, the new Kennedy Center honourees have helped define television, dance, theatre and music.

At the gala performance, Angela Lansbury, Carol Channing and Kelsey Grammer performed some of Herman’s famous tunes from Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles.

For Haggard, Nashville turned out in force.

Willie Nelson and Sheryl Crow sang Haggard’s Today I Started Loving You Again, and Jamey Johnson and Kid Rock sang Ramblin Fever.

Vince Gill and Brad Paisley sang Workin Man Blues.

After the honours were announced in September, Jones, the son of potato pickers, said he could recall dreaming of big things as a 9-year-old boy in upstate New York.