Credit: Andy Witchger

Tony Bennett, legendary American singer, dead aged 96

Fri 21 July 2023 13:57, UK

Legendary American singer Tony Bennett has died aged 96. The crooner was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016.

At the time of writing, no statement has been provided by his family or management relating to Bennett’s death. However, his publicist Sylvia Weiner confirmed the news to the AP. Although he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2016, Bennett continued to perform, and his final appearance was alongside Lady Gaga at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 2021.

Bennett and Gaga previously teamed up in 2014 for the collaborative album Cheek to Cheek, topping the Billboard 200. Additionally, the LP also won ‘Best Traditional Pop Vocal’ album at the Grammy Awards. In total, he won 20 Grammys throughout the entirety of his career, including the coveted ‘Lifetime Achievement’ award.

After serving in World War II, Bennett began his recording career and released his first album, Because Of You, in 1952. Throughout his career, Bennett released 61 studio albums, with his final solo LP arriving in 2015. In total, the late crooner sold over 50 million records.

Following the success of his debut album, Bennett became a mainstay in the charts and continuously had hit records for seven continuous decades. In 2021, he became the individual artist with the longest overall stay in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 album chart following the success of his album Love For Sale with Gaga.

Outside of music, Bennett was married twice and had four children from two different women. The late singer also founded the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, who was his mentor. In 1965, Sinatra said of his talent to Life: “For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He’s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.”

Meanwhile, in 2021, Gaga said to Stephen Colbert of Bennett: “He is a remarkable human being, he served our country, he also marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he used to sneak Duke Ellington into the back of hotels to play jazz music all night long. His commitment to civil rights, and to humanity, is something that he has taught me from a young age to take with me in all that I do. I love him very deeply.”

In addition to Gaga, Bennett also worked with esteemed artists such as John Legend, Paul McCartney and Frank Sinatra. Furthermore, his collaboration with Amy Winehouse, ‘Body and Soul’, was the last track she recorded before her untimely death.

Looking back on his iconic career with The Guardian in 2013, Bennett powerfully said: “I’ve never worked a day in my life. People don’t believe that, but it’s true. I love what I’m doing because I’m doing the two things I love. I never felt in my whole life like, ‘I don’t feel like doing that today’. I wake up and I can’t wait to paint and I can’t wait to learn something about music.”

Listen to Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett sing ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ below.