By admin 
Introduction
As he shatters records in Las Vegas and takes on Broadway, the legendary Barry Manilow reflects on life, love, and a career spanning six decades—with heartfelt insights from an emotional Bette Midler, who has finally forgiven her longtime accompanist for becoming a superstar in his own right.
Manilow greets the morning poolside at his Palm Springs home, a breathtaking eight-bedroom hillside villa overlooking the Coachella Valley. Towering just over six feet and rail-thin, he appears even taller. This morning, he taps his slender leg to a pulsating techno track, Calvin Harris’s “Love Regenerator,” a far cry from the easy-listening tunes that first made him a household name. Dance music, it seems, is one of his secret passions.
Having turned 80 last June, Manilow is emerging from one of the busiest periods of his legendary career. In September, he performed his 637th show at the Westgate Resort Hotel in Las Vegas, surpassing Elvis Presley’s 636 performances at the same venue (then the Las Vegas Hilton) in 1976. Since 2004, he has performed there two weeks a month, three nights a week. He also sold out five nights at Radio City Music Hall in October, with another five shows planned for April, and has a June residency at the London Palladium, billed as his “last, last U.K. concerts.”
On Broadway, Manilow’s musical Harmony—chronicling a Jewish boy band rising to fame as the Nazis took power in Berlin—premiered in November after 25 years of workshops, co-created with longtime lyricist Bruce Sussman (Copacabana). Meanwhile, his cover of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” sits at No. 15 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, ahead of Dua Lipa’s “Houdini.” Over his career, Manilow has scored 11 top-10 hits on the Hot 100, including three No. 1s (“Mandy,” “I Write the Songs,” and “Looks Like We Made It”), and sold over 85 million records, cementing his place among the world’s best-selling artists.
Even Manilow is astonished by his own longevity. “My family mostly lived until 74, so I thought, ‘This is the end,’ when I hit that age,” he admits. “But it didn’t stop. I kept touring. I kept making records. I wonder when my body will give out.”
Ken Thomas, his tour manager for 15 years, sees no sign of slowing down. “He’ll keep performing until he physically can’t walk on stage,” Thomas says. “He’s always said, ‘If I can’t do it right, I won’t do it at all.’” Melanie Taylor, a backup singer since the early 2000s, adds, “Barry has a young spirit and a childlike curiosity. He’s engaged with life and consistent in everything he does.”
Thomas credits Manilow’s energy to two things: “The road is his family, and performing gives them purpose. And Barry is relentless about improving—up until 10 minutes before a show, he’s tweaking, changing, perfecting.” Manilow agrees: “I love adjusting the lights, the video, and working with musicians—but the actual performing? That’s the job. It’s hard work, even if it looks fun.”
To maintain his stamina, Manilow works with a personal trainer every morning and quit smoking, moving from three packs of filterless Pall Malls a day to a white e-cigarette. He wakes at 4 a.m. to “make trouble” for Garry Kief, his husband of 45 years and manager since 1978. Together, they’ve lived full-time in Palm Springs for 25 years, where Manilow also dedicates time to charity, recently completing A Gift of Love VI, a five-night run benefiting 25 local organizations.
Even today, Manilow’s stage presence is as commanding as ever. Watching him deliver a bombastic finale, it’s impossible not to be swept away by his voice and charisma. “The audiences believed in me long before I did,” he recalls, remembering his early performances in Philadelphia’s Bijou theater.
Manilow never envisioned himself as a superstar. Growing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, he dreamed of being an orchestrator and songwriter behind the scenes. For the first decade of his career, he wrote jingles by day and accompanied aspiring divas at night—until Bette Midler entered his life in 1971, forever changing the trajectory of both careers.
“I quickly discovered he could play anything, arrange anything, and make anything emotional,” Midler recalls. Manilow’s memoir Sweet Life describes his first impression of Midler as “every Jewish boy’s nightmare come to life.” Their debut at the Continental Baths—a gay New York bathhouse—proved electric, birthing “the Divine Miss M.” Their partnership launched Midler’s career, with Manilow playing a pivotal role as arranger and musical director.
When Manilow was offered his own record deal, tensions arose, but compromises were made. Touring with Midler allowed him to hone his stage skills, while his 1973 debut album laid the foundation for future hits. Clive Davis of Arista Records then transformed him into a household name with the No. 1 hit “Mandy.” From there, Manilow’s career soared, producing classics like Could It Be Magic, Even Now, and Copacabana, earning him a Grammy in 1978 and induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.
In his current show, Manilow duets with archival footage of his younger self performing “Mandy,” reflecting fondly on the boy who captivated audiences decades ago. Coming out publicly in 2017, he says it was both liberating and unavoidable: “I loved my career, but keeping it quiet was a burden.”
His 45-year relationship with Garry Kief has been the cornerstone of his life. “I knew this was it for the rest of my life,” Manilow says. Together, they’ve lived in iconic homes in Bel Air and Palm Springs, finally settling in the desert for peace and privacy.
Despite a life of achievement and comfort, retirement remains far off. “At 80, he’s still playing Las Vegas, still filling seats,” Midler marvels. “He’s vital, energetic, and still Barry. I’m proud of him, and I want him to know how much I love him.”