US singer Tony Bennett died at the age of 96

He died at the age of 96, US media reported on Friday, citing his spokeswoman. In the early 1960s he landed one of his biggest hits with “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”. Due to his duets with superstar Lady Gaga, the multiple Grammy winner has recently celebrated great success with a young audience.

Tony Bennett probably celebrated the peak of his career around his 90th birthday: galas with showers of confetti, concerts with Billy Joel and for Hillary and Bill Clinton, plus an autobiography entitled “Just Getting Started”. Bennett, who was celebrated by the “New York Times” as “America’s treasure and New York’s biggest tearjerker”, had previously released the album “Cheek to Cheek” with Lady Gaga, followed a few years later by a second joint album. Bennett is “the ultimate gentleman,” praised the 60-year-old pop diva. “He taught me so much about jazz. About life.”

Bennett had been in the music business for more than 60 years, but he clearly enjoyed his late and all the more successful comeback. In early 2021, Bennett’s family announced that he had Alzheimer’s disease. A few months later, the singer gave two sold-out concerts with Lady Gaga in New York – his last major performances.

“Frank Sinatra changed my life”

He owes his career to Frank Sinatra, Bennett once said in an interview. “He changed my life. In an article in Life Magazine he said I was the best singer he’d ever heard. I was so mediocre at the time and had a million-selling record every now and then, but for I wanted to be good, not the most famous. Then he called me the best he had ever heard. And since then my concerts have been selling out all over the world.” In gratitude, Bennett founded a school for musically gifted youth in New York and named it after Sinatra.

The school is in his home district of Astoria, in the New York borough of Queens. It was here that Bennett was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on August 3, 1926. His father died when he was still a little boy. His mother supported him and his two siblings as a seamstress. As a teenager, Bennett performed as a singer. During World War II he served as a soldier, including in Germany and France. It was a “front row seat in hell,” he said later. Back in the US, he launched his career with songs like “Because of You”, “Rags to Riches” and then the hit that would stay with him throughout his life, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”.

On the side, Bennett has always painted, mostly nature and New York’s Central Park. Bennett has published two art books and three of his works have entered the collection of the Smithsonian Museum.

Bennett’s music career, on the other hand, had its ups and downs. He couldn’t cope with rock in the 70s, took drugs and suffered from depression. “I had moments of uncertainty and darkness, but I was able to pull myself out of it.” Bennett never wanted to change himself or his style, despite all the depths. “If something is good, it’s always good. You don’t have to change it.”