Barry Manilow

Linking the crooning style of old school singers like Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby with a modern approach to popular music, Barry Manilow has proved himself one of the most durable entertainers of his generation. From an Irish and Jewish family, he was raised in Brooklyn and studied at New York's famous Juilliard School of performing arts, while working part-time at CBS Records. In 1964 he wrote an original score for an off-Broadway adaptation of the melodrama 'The Drunkard', which ran for eight years, and also became a successful writer/performer of TV commercial jingles. In the early '70s, he became Bette Midler's pianist and musical director, co-producing her first two albums, resulting in his own record deal and the breakthrough hit singles 'Mandy', 'It's a Miracle', 'I Write the Songs' and 'Could It Be Magic', which was based on Chopin's 'Prelude in C Minor, Op. 28, No. 20'. International success followed and his iconic song 'Copacabana' inspired a stage musical and film as Manilow cemented his place as a king of romantic song. The '80s saw Manilow move more into contemporary pop with songs 'Somewhere Down the Road', 'The Old Songs' and 'Read 'Em and Weep' all achieving commercial success. In 1985 he starred in the role of Tony Starr in the film 'Copacabana' based on the song; he also penned the rest of the soundtrack for the film. He continued to perform to sold-out crowds and in 1987 released 'Swing Street', a brand new album of techno jazz music. Manilow rekindled his working relationship with Bette Midler in 2003 when he produced the album 'Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook'. The follow-up 'Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook' came two years later, with both albums reaffirming Manilow's status in the industry. He returned to the studio in 2006 to record an album of covers titled 'The Greatest Songs of the Fifties'. The album went to number one in the Billboard 200, his first album to achieve this in almost 30 years. 2011 saw the release of '15 Minutes' and a Radio 2 documentary about some of his favourite composers. In 2017 Manilow confirmed to the media and his fans that he was gay and that he had married his long-term partner Garry Kief three years before.

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