Lady Gaga pays tribute to Tony Bennett: 'I will miss my friend forever'
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Lady Gaga, singer Tony Bennett's contemporary musical muse, has shared an emotional tribute to her longtime friend on social media after the jazz legend died July 21 at age 96 following a multiyear battle with Alzheimer's.
"I will miss my friend forever," she wrote on Instagram late Sunday. "I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together. With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power. We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo."
She continued, "But it wasn't an act. Our relationship was very real. Sure he taught me about music, about showbiz life, but he also showed me how to keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight. 'Straight ahead,' he'd say. He was an optimist, he believed in quality work AND quality life. Plus, there was the gratitude… Tony was always grateful. He served in WWII, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and sang jazz with the greatest singers and players in the world."
Gaga went on to address Bennett's struggle with Alzheimer's. "I've been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye. Though there were 5 decades between us, he was my friend. My real true friend. Our age difference didn't matter — in fact, it gave us each something neither of us had with most people. We were from two different stages in life entirely — inspired. Losing Tony to Alzheimer's has been painful but it was also really beautiful. An era of memory loss is such a sacred time in a person's life. There's such a feeling of vulnerability and a desire to preserve dignity. All I wanted was for Tony to remember how much I loved him and how grateful I was to have him in my life. But, as that faded slowly I knew deep down he was sharing with me the most vulnerable moment in his life that he could — being willing to sing with me when his nature was changing so deeply."
The pop icon concluded, "I'll never forget this experience. I'll never forget Tony Bennett. If I could say anything to the world about this I would say don't discount your elders, don't leave them behind when things change. Don't flinch when you feel sad, just keep going straight ahead, sadness is part of it. Take care of your elders and I promise you will learn something special. Maybe even magical. And pay attention to silence — some of my musical partner and I's most meaningful exchanges were with no melody at all."
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for LN Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga perform at 'One Last Time' concert.
Gaga and Bennett began their fruitful partnership on the latter's Duets II album in 2011, for which they sang together on a cover of Mitzi Green's 1937 song "The Lady Is a Tramp." Three years later, they released their first collaborative album, Cheek to Cheek, which included renditions of jazz standards and reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, bridging the gap between Gaga's younger pop fanbase and Bennett's enduring audience.
The album was so successful that the pair embarked on the 36-show Cheek to Cheek tour from 2014 to 2015 and released the PBS concert special Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!
Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2016, and Gaga continued to work with him throughout his life, with the pair recording their second and final joint album, 2021's Love for Sale, between 2018 and 2020, as well as teaming up for the CBS special One Last Time, which chronicled their last onstage performance together in New York City.
"I have a tattoo of a sketch that Tony made of Miles Davis' trumpet on my arm," Gaga said in the run-up to Love for Sale's release, referencing their cover of Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin," which appeared on the LP. "I also have his signature, 'Benedetto,' so when we were singing, I was saying, 'like a tattoo under my skin.'"
Bennett's wife, Susan, also praised Gaga and Bennett's partnership as a key source of comfort after her husband's diagnosis.
"There's a lot about him that I miss," Bennett's wife, Susan, told AARP in 2021. "Because he's not the old Tony anymore. But when he sings, he's the old Tony."
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content:
