In a career that has stretched across six decades, Barry Manilow has become synonymous with polished showmanship, lush arrangements, and a catalogue of songs that defined soft pop for a generation. But if it were up to a younger Barry, none of that would’ve happened, because he never actually wanted to be a singer.
Speaking ahead of his return to the UK for his Last Last Concert Tour, Manilow reflected on the unlikely way his voice ended up at the centre of his life’s work. “I know it sounds weird,” he said. “But I don’t consider myself a singer... I consider myself a musician. That’s what I wanted to do with my life... [be] an arranger, a songwriter, anything, but singing? On a stage? For an audience? That was crazy!”
For a time, that was exactly his plan: write songs, arrange music, maybe stay in the background. But once he’d written an album of songs he loved, someone had to sing them. That someone, much to his dismay, turned out to be him. “I stunk,” Manilow laughed. “I was so awful, but the audiences didn’t think so. They were telling me: ‘Keep going. We like this, we like what you’re doing,’ and that’s how [my career] began.”
It’s a modest story for a performer who has since sold over 85 million records, earned countless awards, and filled arenas around the world. Yet even now, at 82, he insists the disbelief never fully faded. “To this day I honestly don’t understand why they’re applauding so much, but I’m so happy that they’re still with me.”
Manilow had planned to say farewell with a final UK residency at London Palladium in 2024. But, true to form, he changed his mind. “When I got home, I realised that if I’m going to say goodbye, then I should say goodbye to each of these cities that I’ve loved,” he explained. “That will be the last time. But don’t listen to me, everything changes with me!”
Retirement, it seems, has no appeal. He’ll release his 32nd album, What a Time, this December, with the first single “Once Before I Go” already out. Manilow jokes that he’ll keep going “until I can’t hit the high F natural at the end of ‘Even Now.’”
But so far, he still can, and that’s why the applause keeps coming.
