Barry Manilow is diagnosed with lung cancer

EVELYN FREJA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Barry Manilow at the Barrymore Theatre in Manhattan, where previews are underway for his long-in-the-works musical “Harmony,” in September 2023. The singer has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will undergo surgery, he announced in a social-media post on Monday.

Singer Barry Manilow has been diagnosed with lung cancer and will undergo surgery, he announced in a social-media post today.

Manilow, 82, said he had been fighting bronchitis for more than two months when his doctors ordered an MRI.

The test “discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed,” he wrote in a statement on Instagram. “It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early.”

He said that doctors did not think the cancer had spread and that he would have additional tests to confirm their diagnosis.

“No chemo,” he added. “No radiation. Just chicken soup and I Love Lucy reruns.”

Manilow did not say when he would have the surgery, but he is expected to need a month to recover from it. That means, Manilow wrote in his statement, that nine concert dates scheduled for January will be postponed.

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“Just like you, we were all looking forward to the January shows and hate having to move everything around,” he wrote.

A representative for Manilow declined to comment today.

Manilow, who is known for hits including “Mandy,” “Copacabana” and “Can’t Smile Without You,” is one of the last holdovers from the pre-rock era. Between the release of his self-titled debut album in 1973 and 1981, he notched nine Top 10 singles on the pop charts and 12 No. 1 hits in the mellow Adult Contemporary radio format. He has won a Grammy, a Tony and an Emmy, and been nominated for an Oscar.

As a teenager, Manilow learned to play the accordion, and then a cheap spinet piano. In his 20s, he wrote commercial jingles and later became Bette Midler’s pianist, music director and producer. He also sang his own songs in her show.

Some of his biggest hits came from the partnership he formed with producer Clive Davis, who early in Manilow’s career brought him “Brandy,” a British song that the singer initially hated.

“I fought Clive constantly because I didn’t want to do outside material,” he told The New York Times in 2019. Manilow transformed the song into “Mandy,” a career-defining hit.

Manilow songs were suddenly playing alongside pop songs. “When I found myself on the radio next to ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ and ‘Boogie Oogie Oogie,’ I was humiliated,” he said. “Believe it or not, I was hoping it would stop.”

Asked by the Times if he ever considered retiring, Manilow suggested that he did not.

Using an expletive, he described himself as “old as the hills.” But, he added, “I can still hit an F natural.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company

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