Barry Manilow Returns After Lung Cancer Surgery With New Album and Tour

Barry Manilow’s recent video for Once Before I Go looked a lot like a farewell. It showed him leaving his Las Vegas Westgate suite after an eight-year residency, sorting through old costumes, and stepping away from the stage. The timing was heavy. He had just postponed shows to undergo surgery for lung cancer. The whole thing read like a final salute.

Manilow says otherwise. The song, written decades ago by Peter Allen, was about a romance. “It just so happened that it sounds like I’m talking about myself,” he told The Guardian. The goodbye was an accident, he insists. Retirement was never the plan.

A few months after that scare, Manilow has a new album due out within weeks and a string of tour dates already set. The cancer, he says, was a shock, especially given that his mother Edna died from the same disease. But the treatment went cleanly. No chemotherapy, no radiation. Surgeons removed the tumor and threw it, in his words, “in the garbage.” Pneumonia landed him in intensive care for a week and left his voice croaky, but he refuses to postpone the upcoming run. “I’m going to do it whether I can sing or not,” he said.

At his Palm Springs home, surrounded by awards and photos with Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, and Princess Diana, Manilow sounded more stubborn than sentimental. The residency has ended, but the road is still there. And those Fanilows he’s followed by for half a century are likely ready for whatever version of the voice he brings.