Barry Manilow Opens Up About Health Crisis, New Album and Making Fans Happy

For more than five decades, Barry Manilow has been the soundtrack to pure joy. With timeless hits like "Mandy," "Copacabana" and "I Write the Song," the Grammy-, Tony- and Emmy winning singer-songwriter has built one of the most devoted fan bases in history. At 82, he's looking forward, not back.

His 33rd studio album, What a Time (out June 5), marks a return to the eclectic, melody-driven music that made him a star. The previously unreleased tracks, which he has worked on over multiple decades, are a blend of jazz, pop and sweeping balladry. The lead single, "Once Before I Go," was written by Manilow's friend, Peter Allen, who first played it for the musician years ago. "I knew I was too young to be honest about a song like that," he says. "Cut to present day, and super-producer Clive Davis asked Manilow, "Have you ever heard of a song called ‘Once Before I Go?' You should record that. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds "did a beautiful rendition," says Manilow, "and I put my voice on it." The song is about a breakup, not Manilow's health, says the star.

Fans would be forgiven for getting that wrong. The album arrives after one of the scariest chapters of Manilow's life: In December, the icon revealed a lung cancer diagnosis which led to multiple postponed farewell-tour stops. (Because doctors caught the cancer early, he required surgery, but no chemo or radiation.) It also left him wondering if he's done everything he wanted to in his life.

In an intimate conversation with Us, Manilow talks about the frightening recovery process, his fears about returning to the stage and why making people feel good remains his greatest goal.

Tell me a little bit about what inspired "What a Time."

I was making albums like this from the beginning of my career - song following song following song - and I always like to make them in different styles. I've done this forever. And then I started doing concept albums. I stopped doing just songs. They were concept albums that were singing with the big bands, which was a big band album, there was a Broadway album, there was.. I just kept going on and on, and I stopped writing regular songs, and Clive suggested that we do the greatest songs of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s - so for all those years I stopped [recording] pop songs. I was still writing, but I wasn't putting them on any albums. My collaborators and I kept writing songs, and I've always loved them. That's what this album is - all these songs that I've always loved, that no one's ever heard. I'm so happy to have these songs finally being heard by by people,

Having just listened to the album, I hear different genres.

It's a lot of different genres. That's what I've always done. I've never done an album that starts with a song and all the other ones sound just like that first song. A lot of people do that. A lot of people I love do that, but I've never done that. I've always gone from "Copacabana" to ballads to a Broadway kind of song. I miss doing that. During those years that I was doing concept albums, I was still writing those kinds of songs, I just had no place to put them, and now I do.

How has your relationship with fame changed over the years?

I've gotten used to it. I'm okay with it. I'll tell you why. The people that stop me in the streets say the most beautiful things. If that's what fame is, I'm very happy about it, because we've all read what fame can do to somebody. Poor Brittany Spears - she's a talented, beautiful young girl, and God knows what's happening [there]. Thank goodness that never happened to me. My relationship with fame has been just beautiful. In the beginning, it was a little rough, because I was the teenage idol guy. I was in Tiger Beat magazine. So that was different, because I was young, they were young and following me behind my cars. But that stopped pretty quickly, and my fame has been really beautiful. I didn't go crazy. I had this cancer scare, and have you read some of the things that people have been saying, wishing me well, and hoping that I get through this? It was mind boggling to me that there were that many people that even knew I was around and cared about my health. That's what I've always had. I've had these.. I don't like the word fan. These people who've always been great to [me from] the very beginning. I have always said I would like to sit down and have a conversation with every one of them. They're smart, they're funny and so devoted.

What do you think younger artists today could learn from the era when you first broke into the music business?

It's about writing! The lyrics to the songs that young people are writing, they're not witty, they're not emotional. When did that stop? I wonder. The stars of today's records are the engineers and the producers, because they make these fantastic sounding records. There's a handful of really wonderful songwriters, Bruno Mars and Gaga, but most, most of what I listen to on the radio, and I don't [like]. When I do [like it], it really is the engineers and the producers that are making these records just irresistible. When I started writing, it was really about the melody and the lyrics. It's not about melody and lyrics anymore.

Is there a moment in your career that still feels surreal to you?

Meeting Barbara Streisand. We're one year apart. I wouldn't say [she was] a big influence, but I just admired her guts. Certainly in the beginning she took such chances. All of her earlier albums, as a budding arranger, I wanted to know how, who, why, how they put these songs together like that. Was it her? Was it [composer, arranger and musical director] Peter Matz who did this kind of writing? As a young budding arranger, musician, I think her earlier albums had a major impact on me.

Is there anything that still gives you butterflies?

Debuting a new song. Me, the band, we don't know how it's going to go over. That's kind of fun, by the way. I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. But I'm going to be doing some songs from this album on the next tour. I don't know how they'll go over, you know. The audiences have changed. When I started out with my earlier albums, they couldn't wait to hear the new songs. Now they don't want songs that they don't know. They want songs that they know, so they can sing along. Whenever I try to do something new, I can feel the air go out of the room.

What's your most memorable fan interaction? I'm sure there have been many. Well, the toilet paper was pretty epic.

This girl sent me a roll of toilet paper. She wrote "You are my singer, you are my song," on every little square [and re-rolled it.]. How on earth she wrote it - I guess it was a compliment, but on toilet paper!

One of the lyrics in "Sun Shine" is "You make my day bright." Who makes your day bright?

Gary, my long, my long time husband, Gary. We've been together for 40 something years.

What's your secret to such a long-lasting, loving relationship?

Laughing. And we respect each other a lot.

How would you like your musical legacy to be remembered?

I want people to play [my songs] over and over. I do. I'm very serious about writing. I want the public to feel good when they talk about me, and when they listen to my music. I want them to feel good, better than they did before.

Copyright 2026 Us Weekly. All rights reserved

This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 6:00 AM.