Lady Gaga Shares Moving Tribute To Her “True Friend” Tony Bennett: “I Love You Tony”

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett first met at the Robin Hood Foundation gala in New York City, where she had performed a version of Nat King Cole’s “Orange Colored Sky.” Bennett asked Gaga to sing a duet with him on his next album 2011’s Duets II, which was timed to his 85th birthday. Their performance of “The Lady Is a Tramp” would be the first collaboration between the two and the beginning of an enduring friendship that lasted throughout Bennett’s final years.

On Monday, Gaga posted a moving tribute to Bennett, who died July 21 at 96. “I will miss my friend forever,” she writes. I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together.”

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“With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power,” her caption continued. “We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasn’t an act. Our relationship was very real.”

You can read it in full below.

Gaga and Bennett released duets album Cheek to Cheek in 2014, a collaboration that was inspired by their friendship and Gaga’s fascination with jazz music since her childhood. At the time, Bennett was quoted as saying Gaga is “the most talented artist I have ever met.” The record won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and sparked a concert special Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live. They followed with a Cheek to Cheek tour in 2014-15.

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Their final album was 2021’s Love for Sale, a tribute to Cole Porter which featured duets with Gaga on the title track, “Night and Day” and other Porter songs. It was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy, and the track “I Get a Kick Out of You” was up for Record of the Year and two others.

Their final performance came in August 2021, just months after Bennett revealed he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, in a live concert at Radio City Music Hall. Gaga sang “The Lady Is a Tramp” with Bennett before helping to escort him off the stage.

“Just simply being the woman that got to walk him off stage, that’s enough for me,” Gaga told Anderson Cooper in an interview with 60 Minutes. Watch the video below.

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