Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett has died at the age of 96.
His publicist Sylvia Weiner confirmed the news of Tony’s death to The Associated Press on Friday morning, saying he died in his hometown of New York.
A cause of death has not been confirmed, but Tony had been living with Alzheimer’s disease since 2016, going public with his diagnosis five years later.
Tony was famed for his illustrious music career, which spanned eight decades and saw him release more than 70 albums and win 19 Grammy Awards.
Born in 1926, Tony began his music career after serving in the US army in the final stages of World War II, releasing his first album in 1952.
He became famed for his signature song I Left My Heart In San Francisco, which was released 10 years later.
Often regarded as one of America’s last crooners, Frank Sinatra once described Tony as “the best singer in the business” in a 1965 interview.
“He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He’s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more,” Sinatra told Life magazine at the time.
In 2014, at the age of 88, Tony broke his own record as the oldest living performer with a number one album on the US Billboard 200 chart for Cheek To Cheek, his duets project with Lady Gaga.
Three years earlier, he had topped the charts with Duets II, a collection of collaborations with stars including Gaga, Carrie Underwood, Michael Bublé and Amy Winehouse, in what turned out to be the Back To Black singer’s last studio recording before her death in 2011, at the age of 27.
Tony’s final album, Love For Sale, was released in 2021, featuring duets with Lady Gaga on the title track and Night and Day.
He also performed his final live shows with the Poker Face singer later that year, after announcing his retirement.
At the time, Tony’s son Danny explained the musician had been forced to retire “on doctor’s orders”, despite still being “a capable performer”, explaining that his Alzheimer’s meant he had short-term memory loss.
After news of Tony’s death was confirmed, tributes poured in online:
Tony is survived by his third wife Susan Crow, who he married in 2007, and his four children, including fellow singer Antonia Bennett.