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Solange
Image Credit: Andrew Toth/Getty Images for The New School Honoree Solange Knowles speaks onstage during the 70th Annual Parsons Benefit for The New School on May 21, 2018 in New York City. Joel Towers, the executive dean of Parsons School of Design, said she was honored for “her notable contributions to the music and fashion industries.”
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Kanye West
Image Credit: Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images Kanye West receives an honorary doctorate at the School Of Art Institute Of Chicago commencement ceremony on May 11, 2015 in Chicago. “I felt my nerves a bit…the nerves of humility and modesty when being honored,” he said in his speech. He continued to say that he gave a lecture at Oxford University mentioning how it would have been easier to have a degree from the Art Institute of Chicago when he was “on that mission to create in other spaces, apparel, film, performance.”
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Rihanna
Image Credit: JP Yim/Getty Images for The New School Rihanna speaks during The 69th Annual Parsons Benefit for The New School at Pier 60 on May 22, 2017 in New York City. “You should be celebrated for your creativity, for your fearlessness, for your persistence and determination,” she said as part of her powerful message to the audience.
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John Legend
Image Credit: Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty Images John Legend receives an honorary Doctor of Music during University of Pennsylvania’s 258th Commencement ceremony at Franklin Field on May 19, 2014 in Philadelphia. Legend graduated from the university in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in English and emphasis in African-American literature and culture.
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Willie Nelson
Image Credit: Paul Marotta/Getty Images Willie Nelson receives an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree during the 2013 Berklee College Of Music Commencement Ceremony at Berklee College of Music on May 11, 2013 in Boston. “I was going to ask them if I could write my own medication,” he told the Boston Globe. “Probably not, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.”
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Ed Sheeran
Image Credit: Cindy Ord/GI Ed Sheeran receives an honorary degree for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Music’ from University Campus Suffolk (UCS) in Ipswich in 2015. His hometown university donned him “Dr. Ed Sheeran” in which he claimed “I’ve had an amazing year…and this makes it even better.”
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Johnny Cash
Image Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images Johnny Cash donned black academic robes to receive an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from San Diego’s National University on May 8, 1976. Former Mayor of San Diego Frank Curran declared that day National Johnny Cash Day.
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Chance the Rapper
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Chance The Rapper receives an honorary degree and speaks to graduating students at Dillard University on May 12, 2018 in New Orleans. While following the motley crew of singers calling themselves doctors, Chance gave the recent graduates advice on how to be great performers. “Right now, the greatest performer who ever lived might very well be in this audience,” he said. “And that person has something Beyoncé never had. They got Beyoncé. And so you have the greatest performance of all time — to watch, to study, to learn from it, but not to replicate it. To surpass it.”
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Image Credit: Allison Shelley/Getty Images for DKC Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs reacts after delivering the commencement speech at Howard University’s 146th commencement exercises on May 10, 2014 in Washington, D.C. “Howard University didn’t just change my life — it entered my soul, my heart, my being and my spirit,” he said about his brief time at the university as a business major.
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Elton John
Image Credit: Stefan Rousseau - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images Elton John receives an honorary degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London on April 16, 1997. John previously studied at the academy when he was 11 years old under a program for talented young musicians. He mentioned during his speech that the Royal Academy of Music was “vitally important to development of [his] career.”
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Celine Dion
Image Credit: Jean-Philippe DUMAS/PONOPRESSE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Celine Dion receives an honorary doctorate in music from Laval University superintendent Denis Briere during a ceremony at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec, Canada on Aug. 21, 2008.
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Lionel Richie
Image Credit: Paul Marotta/Getty Images Lionel Richie receives an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree and spoke to students at the Berklee College of Music Commencement Execises at Agganis Arena at Boston University on May 13, 2017 in Boston. Berklee President Roger H. Brown said he was honored for “his contributions to contemporary culture, his humanitarian efforts, and the joy his music brings to so many.”
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Billy Joel
Image Credit: Donna Ward/Getty Images Billy Joel receives honorary Doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music under Stony Brook University at the Riverside Church in Harlem on May 16, 2008 in New York City. He advised the recent graduates that having known he’s wanted to be a musician from a young age, they should “make what they love their life’s work.”
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Aretha Franklin
Image Credit: Rick Friedman/rickfriedman.com/Corbis via Getty Images Aretha Franklin was awarded an honorary doctorate at Harvard University commencement with former President George H.W. Bush and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Cambridge, Mass. on May 29, 2014. Franklin performed a soulful rendition of the National Anthem at the ceremony.
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Sir Paul McCartney
Image Credit: AP Photo/Bob Child Sir Paul McCartney receives an honorary Doctor of Music Degree during Commencement ceremonies at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. on May 26, 2008. Yale University President Richard Levin quoted some of the songwriter’s most iconic lyrics. “Here, there and everywhere. You have pushed the boundaries of the familiar to create new classics. We admire your musical genius and your generous support of worthy causes.”
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Stevie Wonder
Image Credit: AP Photo/Mike Derer Stevie Wonder cheers after he is awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree during commencement at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J., on May 19, 1999. According to a statement from the university, his degree “was conferred in honor of his musical and philanthropic achievements.” Wonder performed “Love’s in Need of Love Today” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You” at the ceremony.
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Lucinda Williams
Image Credit: Paul Marotta/Getty Images Lucinda Williams receives an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree and spoke to students at the Berklee College of Music Commencement Execises at Agganis Arena at Boston University on May 13, 2017 in Boston. On her Facebook page, she noted, “As someone whose life has been dedicated to writing and playing music – and the long path of continuing to try to master both crafts – being honored by an institution that helps others find their way to a life in music is the truest honor of all.”
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Steven Tyler
Image Credit: Marc Andrew Deley/FilmMagic Steven Tyler of Aerosmith receives an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, during the University of Massachusetts Boston 2005 Commencement Ceremony held on June 3, 2005. He toasted the crowd by shaking a tin of licorice Altoids like maracas and singing, “Sweeet grad-uation” in the tune of Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion.”
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Dolly Parton
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Dolly Parton receives an honorary degree from Knoxville College of Arts and Sciences in Tennessee in 2009. UT Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said it was fitting for her to be honored “because of her career not just as a musician and entertainer, but for her role as a cultural ambassador, philanthropist and lifelong advocate for education.”
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Gregg Allman
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Gregg Allman receives an honorary Doctor of Humanities at Mercer University in 2016 in Macon. Former President Jimmy Carter presented the honorary degree to Allman, who used to record at Capricorn Records in Macon with his band, The Altman Brothers Band.
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