2023-07-21 13:54:40
Tony Bennett, one of the figures of the American song, has died at the age of 96. He had withdrawn from the stage two years ago by order of the doctors who are treating his Alzheimer’s case, a disease that he was diagnosed with in 2016.
“There will be no more concerts. It was a difficult decision, because he is a capable singer. But it is the doctors’ order and his health is more important,” his son Danny explained to Variety magazine. Bennett, who was also working as his manager, at the time of his retirement announcement.
Bennett’s last performances were two concerts that he starred in last year at the emblematic Radio City Music Hall in New York with Lady Gaga that ended up being his last recitals.
Gaga and Bennett released a new jazz album on October 1, 2021 titled Love for Sale and whose first single, “I Get a Kick Out of You”, had been released a couple of months earlier, more precisely on August 3 of that year, coinciding with Bennett’s 95th birthday.
The “crooner” found out about the disease he was suffering from during the recording of that album, which lasted two years.
“It’s not about singing, it’s more about the trip. He gets tired. The decision has been made that giving concerts is too much for him. We don’t want him to fall on stage, for example, something as simple as that,” added his son to explain why he would stop acting.
Despite his almost 95 years, at concerts with Gaga, Bennett had shown himself in good shape and with a very unusual voice range for a person of his age, to the point that some attendees doubted that he had Alzheimer’s.
“My answer is that this is where he has lived his whole life and where he is happiest: on stage, making music,” Danny Bennett also said then.
The musician’s wife, Susan Benedetto, told in a recent interview with the Association of Retired Persons of the United States that Bennett “is doing a lot of things, at his age, that a lot of people without dementia can’t do.”
“There are many things about him that I miss. Because he is no longer the old Tony… But when he sings, he is the old Tony,” he said.
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