Barry Manilow gave fans an update on his health shortly after sharing his cancer diagnosis.
In an Instagram photo shared Friday, the 82-year-old singer was lying in a hospital bed in a green hospital gown with a smile on his face, captioning the post, “Better Today!”
Fans were happy to see the “Copacabana” singer was doing better, with many sending him love and positive wishes in the comments section.
“We love you Barry!! God is good! Can’t wait to see you again soon.”
“I’ve loved you Barry for 50 years! My heart skipped a beat when I heard you were sick,” another said.
“So glad to see you are doing well and recuperating.”
Manilow first shared that a cancerous spot had been found on his lungs in an Instagram post shared in late December.
He explained that after suffering “through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” his doctors ordered more tests out of an abundance of caution and found something more serious.
“Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK. The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed. It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early. That’s the good news.”
“The bad news is that now that the ‘Christmas A Gift of Love’ concerts are over, I’m going into surgery to have the spot removed,” he continued.
“The doctors do not believe it has spread, and I’m taking tests to confirm the diagnosis. So, that’s it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and ‘I Love Lucy’ reruns.”
He went on to apologize to all his fans who had already purchased tickets, telling them he was “looking forward to the January shows” as much as they were and that he “hate[s] having to move everything around.”
Manilow is known for hits such as “I Write the Songs” and “Can’t Smile Without You,” but he told NBC News in April 2024 he didn’t think his biggest hit, “Copacabana,” would become what it did.
He explained he and his co-producer at the time, Ron Duarte, “never thought it would ever get played on the radio.”
“But we took it to a disco, when there were discos, and we asked the DJ to play it,” Manilow said.
“And everybody ran to the dance floor and started to dance like they were back in the 1940s. They were dipping the girls and all because, you know, it’s ‘Copa.’ And, I said to Ron, ‘We may be onto something with this one.’ And then, it turned out to be the most popular song in my catalog.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
