lady gaga tour with tony bennett

Inside Tony Bennett's Final Performance With Lady Gaga

'There wasn't a dry eye,' an eyewitness tells ET.

Tony Bennett has taken his final bow.

The 95-year-old singer performed his last-ever show  at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Thursday, accompanied by his longtime collaborator, Lady Gaga . An eyewitness told ET that the show, titled  One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga , was "so special."

"Lady Gaga was so sweet about him and really encouraged the audience to make him feel special," the eyewitness said. "Tony kept pausing to take it in and wave to the audience. At the end of every song he sang, he'd put both arms out and say, 'Wow' or 'beautiful.' It was really special."

"At the very end, Lady Gaga asked if she could walk him off stage 'one last time,'" the eyewitness added. "There wasn't a dry eye there."

Ahead of the show, Lady Gaga took to Twitter to share her excitement about the evening. "Can't wait for our last show tonight Tony," she wrote. "The world loves you, and we're all so lucky to witness your gift, your generosity and your joy tonight at Radio City."

She also shared a clip from their new " I Get a Kick Out of You " music video, out now.

Lady Gaga also attended an after-party at Tommy Tardie’s property, Fine & Rare, which was hosted by Brian Newman and included guests Jon Batiste and Michael Bearden.

ET reported last month that Bennett and Gaga would be sharing the stage together one last time amid his  battle with Alzheimer's disease . He was first diagnosed with the neurological disorder in 2016.

"We couldn't be prouder to host such a special engagement with two of the most iconic entertainers of our time," Darren Pfeffer, Executive Vice President, Live, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, shared in a statement at the time. "Both Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga are synonymous with New York City, making the Great Stage at Radio City Music Hall the perfect place to honor their decade long friendship and celebrate Mr. Bennett's 95th birthday."

Hear more in the video below.

RELATED CONTENT:

Lady Gaga's Workout Look Includes 8-Inch Platform Boots

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett Celebrate His 95th Birthday With New Song

Lady Gaga Plots an Assassination in 'House of Gucci' Trailer

• Tony Bennett

Updates on Celebrity News, TV, Fashion and More!

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

One Last Time on CBS: Tony Bennett’s Last Concert With Lady Gaga — Which Performances Were Your Favorite?

Ryan schwartz, senior editor.

• Share on Facebook
• Show more sharing options
• Share to Flipboard
• Share on LinkedIn
• Submit to Reddit
• Post to Tumblr
• Share on WhatsApp
• Print This Page

Tony Bennett might have left his heart in San Francisco, but his soul was ever-present during his final live performance. One Last Time With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Watch 4 Performances From CBS Concert Special View List

CBS on Sunday offered viewers a front-row seat to One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga , a primetime special marking Bennett’s last concert appearance before announcing his retirement from touring. Filmed in August, the hour consisted of 11 showtunes performed at Radio City Music Hall in celebration of Bennett’s birthday.

“How do you honor the most important and enduring voice of the last century?” Gaga asked at the top of the show. “Someone who has been a mentor, a savior and a dear friend?

“Tony’s career has spanned eight decades — and in all of that time, he has never given less than his very best,” she said. “So, that is how I want to honor him tonight: By giving him more than I ever knew I had, and making Tony proud.”

Gaga kicked things off with a four-song set, beginning with “Luck Be a Lady.” That was followed by “Orange Colored Sky,” “Let’s Do It” and “New York, New York.”

Bennett came out next, performing “Watch What Happens,” “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” and “Fly Me to the Moon.” He was also accompanied by Gaga on three songs — “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Love for Sale” and “Anything Goes” — before he closed things out with “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

Bennett and Gaga first collaborated on Bennett’s 2011 release Duets II , before they put out two complete albums together: 2014’s Cheek to Cheek (which took home a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2015) and 2021’s Love for Sale (which recently netted six Grammy noms ).

Bennett, now 95, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2017. His family first went public with his diagnosis in February, and a revealing 60 Minutes segment followed in October (which you can view here ).

Click on the attached listicle to watch (or rewatch) select performances, then vote in our poll and tell us which songs touched you most. Afterwards, drop a comment with your full review of One Last Time .

Cancel reply

20 comments.

Email * Your email address will not be published. We will notify you when someone replies.

Incredible. I saw them perform together in New Orleans at Jazz Fest when they were promoting their first album together. Awesome pairing.

… hard to pick just 3! A+ special…

I’m nearly 70 years old, which means I’ve been listening to Tony Bennett for more than 69 years. (My parents were huge fans.)

It was wonderful see him singing one last time,

The joy on his face 😍

LOL. TY! GAGA and Bennett, AMAZEBALLS. Our mother was a professional jazz singer from the 50s to the 2000s and she would have LOVED LOVED LOVED this show. I was in tears MOST of the time. A real showing of love and talent and good clean pop culture with LEGS and deep heritage. TYTYTY Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Long may they thrive.

If your mother was a jazz singer, she would have gagged at Gaga’s terrible phrasing and vocalizing. You should know that considering your background.

Don’t be a Ken, Karen. So uncalled for and inappropriate.

Mr tony Bennett’s , I grew up with his music. I am lucky to have heard him thru the years . God Bless you !

Lady Gaga was obnoxious, rowdy, clumsy, classless, and awful. She upstaged Bennett, distracted from him, and made it all about herself. They have nothing in common musically. Tony Bennett is an icon. Lady Gaga is a self-promoting jerk who had no respect for what that evening was all about-Tony Bennett’s 95th birthday.

I unfortunately have to agree. What was with all that crazy arm gesturing. Her behavior was distracting and a lot of her movement was out of cinque with the music and completely unnecessary. Class doesn’t need all that and Tony’s music is smooth and classy.

I agree. I wanted more Tony and far less Gaga. She didn’t have to stand completely still, but all of that movement was uncalled for.

I have to agree – her “dance” moves were terrible – she looked like she had no rhythm

Agreed. I think her intentions are good but her dancing was awkward.

Here is the thing. Tony is old and has Alzheimer’s, so Gaga was filling in a lot of the time. She did what was needed. I do however think she needs a choreographer for jazz singing, because her moves were so bizarre, and as others have said, she looked like she has no rhythm , and was out of sync with the music. Anyway, he could not have done an entire concert himself, It’s just too much for him now, and I think she gave him all the kudos. Like it or not, her voice is amazing.

Never mind, you & your comments aren’t worth it.

God bless Tony Bennett. He was fabulous!!!

Lady Gaga was like a combination of Liza Minelli and Tina Turner, and not in a good way. It was kind of like watching the Frankenstein’s Monster of show biz.

The fact that Mr. Bennett chose to record not one, but two, albums with Gaga proves that he respects her talent and doesn’t judge her. They are different and that’s the point. It shows that two completely different people can make beautiful music together. If you’d seen them on tour you would know that Gaga does what she does and Tony does what he does. They accept each other, and love each other unconditionally, and they make great music together. If only the world followed their example of kindness and tolerance for difference perhaps this world would be better.

It was a wonderful show but does anyone know why the iconic introduction to “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” was omitted from the performance of the song? …BIG MISTAKE TO LEAVE IT OFF!

SPOILER ALERT:: Watched and dvr’d it and have re-watched 3x already. Tony is awesome, Gaga is awesome, together they are the awesomest! (I just made that word up) I went back and watched the Oct 60Min vid and cried my eyes out. Now I understand Gaga’s reaction on stage when Tony recognized her and said her name! Two music icons together is a treasure. WHEN WILL IT BE ON DVD?

Most Popular

You may also like.

Tony Bennett will perform 'One Last Time' with Lady Gaga at NYC's Radio City

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett are reuniting on stage "One Last Time."

The longtime friends and collaborators will be performing a two-night concert titled "One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga " on Aug. 3 and Aug. 5 to celebrate Bennett's 95th birthday, Gaga announced on Twitter.

"I am so honored and excited to celebrate Tony’s 95th birthday with him at these special shows," Gaga tweeted.

The shows will take place at Radio City in New York and will be Bennett's last performances in the city, according to a release.

Earlier this year, during an interview with AARP , Bennett revealed he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2016.

At the time, he had not yet experienced common symptoms like disorientation or episodes of terror, rage or depression, according to the article, "but there was little doubt that the disease had progressed."

Gayatri Devi, M.D., a neurologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, who diagnosed Bennett, said in February singer has some “cognitive issues, but multiple other areas of his brain are still resilient and functioning well."

'Life is a gift' : Tony Bennett reveals battle with Alzheimer's disease

Bennett's wife Susan Crow and eldest son Danny were also part of the interview.

Danny said he checked in with Gaga about breaking the silence around his diagnosis.

“I wanted to check with her to make sure she was cool,” Danny said. “because she watches his back all the time. She was like, ‘Absolutely, it's just another gift that he can give to the world.' "

In the interview, the 94-year-old singer also shared he and Gaga have a new album coming out, following their 2014 album "Cheek to Cheek." The album, which recorded between 2018 and early 2020, has not yet been released.

Presale tickets for "One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga" go on sale July 21 at 10 a.m. on Citi Entertainment and general ticket sales will begin the following day at 10 a.m. on Live Nation.  

All guests 16 years old and over must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend the concert and are required to show proof.

More: 'In the Heights' star Anthony Ramos reveals Lady Gaga's advice after signing a record deal

How to watch Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett CBS special ‘One Last Time’

Lady Gaga reunited with Tony Bennett in this special, final concert from the legendary crooner.

After airing a special concert from Adele a couple of weeks ago, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett are next up for a primetime performance on CBS. Called One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga , the music special will air on Sunday, Nov. 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett have long been friends and collaborators, having performed together and recorded multiple albums in recent years. Why this upcoming concert is being dubbed One Last Time is Bennett, who is 95, has been battling with Alzheimers and had previously announced that he would be retiring from performing . The one-hour special is a recording of Bennett’s final two performances at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall; the performances were filmed in August.

Here is a quick trailer from CBS for One Last Time :

One Last Time is actually the first of three Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett specials that will be released across ViacomCBS’ portfolio of platforms. The other two include a special edition of MTV Unplugged featuring the two singers (it is being planned for a TBD winter date) and a documentary, The Lady and the Legend , that will eventually release exclusively on Paramount Plus.

If you want to watch Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett’s final performances together, here is what you need to know.

How to watch ‘One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’ in the U.S.

Airing exclusively on CBS, anyone wanting to watch One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga when it is broadcast on Sunday, Nov. 28, will have a handful of options. The first is being signed up for a traditional cable/satellite pay-TV subscription service; as CBS is one of the four major networks available in all U.S. TV markets, the network should be carried by all pay-TV providers. Viewers can also watch it by receiving their local CBS station signal with a TV antenna. CBS is also included in the channel lineup of live TV streaming services like FuboTV , Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV . 

For those who are subscribed to a traditional pay-TV or live TV streaming service, they can use their login credentials to watch the live CBS feed from CBS.com or on the CBS app.

One more option is to be a subscriber to the Paramount Plus premium package. Costing $9.99, the ad-free, premium version of Paramount Plus includes access to the subscriber’s local CBS station live, in addition to the library of TV show, movies and Paramount Plus originals available with the service. Those subscribed to this Paramount Plus plan will be able to watch One Last Time live via the streaming platform. Should they miss it live, however, or are a subscriber to the $4.99 Paramount Plus plan, the special will be available on-demand the next day, Nov. 29.

How to watch ‘One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’ from anywhere in the world

CBS is only available for U.S. viewers and Paramount Plus is only available in a handful of markets (a wider rollout is expected in 2022), so how can fans of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett tune into this special concert if they don’t have access to either of these sources? This is where a virtual private network (VPN) can come in hand.

A virtual private network allows you to route all of your internet traffic through a specific set of servers in a specific country. The one caveat here is that you need to be able to trust your VPN provider, because all of your traffic — encrypted as well as unencrypted — is going to be going through that VPN. For that, we've long been fans of ExpressVPN .   

<a href="https://go.expressvpn.com/c/4550836/1330033/16063?subId1=hawk-custom-tracking&sharedId=hawk&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.expressvpn.com%2F%3Foffer%3D3monthsfree%26a_fid%3D744" data-link-merchant="expressvpn.com"" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">ExpressVPN is one of the easiest and affordable ways to watch what you want from anywhere you want to watch it. Plus it'll help keep your network traffic away from any prying eyes on public networks.

And it's a great way to keep up with action from anywhere in the world.

Get the What to Watch Newsletter

The latest updates, reviews and unmissable series to watch and more!

Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

How to watch The Masters on Paramount Plus

How to watch Monkey Man

Coronation Street fans brace themselves for the return of 'the WORST villain ever'

Most Popular

• 2 I Am Heath Ledger documentary special is airing on TV tonight
• 3 All four parts of Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight to air on CNN this weekend
• 4 How to watch the 2024 Boston Marathon online or on TV
• 5 'It's like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, or the reverse of Life on Mars,' teases Mammoth star Mike Bubbins

• Action/Adventure
• Children's/Family
• Documentary/Reality
• Amazon Prime Video

More From Decider

'The Golden Bachelor' Stars Gerry Turner And Theresa Nist Divorcing Three...

'The View' Reacts To O.J. Simpson's Death: "The Tragedy Was The...

'The View' Forced To Evacuate Their Studio Before Wednesday's Show After...

'X-Men '97' Gives Gambit a Hero Moment You'll Never Forget

Holly Madison Says She “Tried” Exotic Dancing But Doesn’t Have...

'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' at 10: The Movie That Made (and...

Joy Behar Says She Was "Dragged Into" Controversy Over Beyoncé's 'Jolene'...

Guy Fieri Calls Drew Barrymore "Gangster" For Talking With Her "Mouth Full...

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
• Click to copy URL

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’ on Paramount+, Where The Legendary Entertainer Gives His Final Public Performance

Where to stream:.

• One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga

Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, Joaquin Phoenix, Austin Butler To Star In A24 Modern Western 'Eddington'

The 26 most anticipated movies of 2024, from ‘dune’ to ‘wicked’, 'ted lasso' co-stars jason sudeikis and hannah waddingham reunite for a powerful duet of "shallow", 'snl' recap: bad bunny pulls double duty, calls in mick jagger and pedro pascal for his own sábado gigante.

Lady Gaga had quite the Thanksgiving Weekend. November 24 marked the opening of House of Gucci , where she stars as the power-hungry Patrizia Reggiani, and the singer headlined CBS’ programming the following Sunday night with One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga ( Paramount+ ), a concert special filmed over two sold-out shows presented at in August 2021 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall to honor performing legend and 95th birthday boy Tony Bennett.

ONE LAST TIME: AN EVENING WITH TONY BENNETT AND LADY GAGA : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “How do you honor the most important and enduring voice of the last century?” Lady Gaga asks in voiceover as One Last Time begins and scenes of Gaga and Bennett singing and laughing together play. “I want to honor him tonight by giving more than I ever knew I had, and making Tony proud.”

The Gist: Cheek to Cheek , the Grammy-winning 2014 album from Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Gaga, the star more well-known for outlandish pop spectacle, and Bennett, the veteran voice of the American songbook, proved to be thick as thieves, and followed up their first collaboration with the Cole Porter tribute Love For Sale , released this past September. One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga presents material from the pair’s two-night stand at Radio City Music Hall in August 2021, with Gaga performing a solo set to open, followed by a set break and Bennett’s solo performance, and then a duo setup for the show’s final portion. Bennett turned 95 in August, and these shows were billed as his final public performances; the Queens, New York-born, multiple-Grammy winning singer of jazz and big band standards was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2016, and has largely retired from public life due to his condition and advanced age. The disease doesn’t stop him from belting out the classics here, however. Bennett might stick close to the piano, but his voice comes alive on some of the most well-known songs from his eight decades in show business, and Lady Gaga maintains a mood hovering between reverence for her legendary collaborator and the built-in irreverence of a natural performer.

After an introductory spin through “Luck be a Lady” where she salutes Bill Clinton sitting in the front row and enlists the audience in celebrating Bennett’s big 95th, Lady Gaga recounts her initial encounter with the singer — “I looked crazy. I had blonde in my hair and black in my hair, four big velvet bows on my face…I was doing my thing …” — before busting into the jazz standard “Orange Colored Sky” (“Wham! Bam! Al-a-kazam!”), “Let’s Do It” from her longtime inspiration Cole Porter, and “New York, New York,” which becomes the introductory number for Bennett himself. After a curtain drop he appears, working easily into Irving Berlin’s “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” and a quiet, jazz guitar-plucked rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon.” One Last Time finds its way toward a finale with Gaga rejoining Bennett for a medley of “Happy Birthday” and “Lady is a Tramp,” and they return to the Cole Porter songbook explored on Love For Sale before Bennett closes it out with his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” It’s a fitting, if decidedly poignant end for an entertainer whose indelible mark on entertainment is undeniable.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It originally aired on CBS, and it’s available to stream on Paramount+. But what One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga most harkens back to is marquee PBS programming, especially during pledge drives. From its orchestra clad in formal wear to utter lack of pretense — there are no strobe lights here, no flashy backup dancers; this is a concert to honor a senior member of the show business pantheon, with Lady Gaga as a willing participant — One Last Time recalls the concert specials public broadcasting would air from any of Bennett’s peers, Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand among them.

Our Take: There’s probably nobody on this earth who will ever get as much mileage out of “Wow!” as Tony Bennett. “What a crowd!” With over 70 albums to his credit, an absolutely giant voice, and a signature charm that’s been making listeners melt for decades, the man born Anthony Dominick Benedetto proves with his performance in One Last Time that doing more with less is still a virtue, and that he’s still got “that thing.” In interviews for 60 Minutes the preceded the concerts at Radio City, Bennett’s family members and longtime musical collaborators admitted they were unsure what effect his condition would have on the shows. But what he lacks in mobility, Bennett makes up for with ringing vocal verve, hitting big notes and finding the intangible phrasing that makes standards from Berlin and Porter and the rest ring with lasting fervor.

As for Lady Gaga, she acquits herself well of the classic jazz material, adhering to the traditional style of singing these songs, but also bringing her irrepressible personality to the proceedings, too. She’ll stop a song to speak asides to the audience, or shout out a former US president; she’ll ask her drummer, who’s busy playing a solo, to hand over her patent leather top hat, which she then uses to tromp on his cymbals. “Can anybody guess who the man of the hour is?” she exclaims midway through “New York, New York,” and the audience cheers, because in One Last Time , Gaga never loses sight of her role, not just as a collaborator and duet partner, but as the concerts’ in-house, on-stage hype person for a stone-cold legend.

Sex and Skin: Come on, no way. Gaga does do a few “ va va va voom! ” sashays in her stage gown finery.

Parting Shot: “Tony, we’re all so grateful to have witnessed your talent, your generosity, your creativity, and your kindness, and your service throughout all these years,” Lady Gaga tells her singing partner and mentor. “Mr. Bennett, it would be my honor to escort you off the stage.” And there’s a final wave to the crowd from Bennett as the band plays them off and Gaga holds his arm, and perhaps holds him steady, too.

Sleeper Star: Pianist Alex Smith played on the Cheek to Cheek album with Bennett and Gaga, and is the keyboardist and arranger for Gaga’s jazz quintet. Here, during a rousing version of the Cole Porter classic “Let’s Do It,” he hops from the grand piano at center stage to a gorgeous Hammond organ, and proceeds to whip out a swaggering solo.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Give it up for the orchestra! It’s Tony Bennett’s birthday and we’re in New York City!” Lady Gaga is the ringmaster for One Last Time , and keeps the atmosphere light and rich with classic-minded entertainment vibes.

Our Call: STREAM IT. And stream it in particular if your parents are visiting for Christmas. One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga is both a fitting public farewell for a musical legend and a fun throwback to the golden age of live entertainment.

Will you stream or skip the concert special #OneLastTime : An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga on @paramountplus ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) December 1, 2021

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges

Watch One Last Time on Paramount+

• Stream It Or Skip It

Does 'Yellowstone' Return Tonight? Everything To Know About 'Yellowstone's Season 5, Part 2 Premiere Date

Dwayne Johnson Gets Into Verbal Altercation With WWE Fan: "Watch Your F**king Mouth"

Is 'Civil War' Streaming on Netflix or HBO Max?

'The View' Reacts To O.J. Simpson's Death: "The Tragedy Was The Injustice" 

Stream It Or Skip It: 'Anthracite' On Netflix, About Four People Trying To Solve A Ritualistic Murder In The French Alps

Where To Watch 'When Calls The Heart' Season 11: Start Time, Streaming Info

Welcome to the new Paramount Press Express website!

If you are a previous Press Express user, please note our new URL: www.paramountpressexpress.com

• CBS Entertainment
• CBS News and Stations
• CBS Studios
• CBS Media Ventures
• Paramount Global Content Distribution
• Paramount Global
• Comedy Central
• Nickelodeon
• Paramount Network
• Paramount Pictures
• Awesomeness
• Smithsonian Channel
• CBS Broadcast Publicity

Top Searches

"one last time: an evening with tony bennett and lady gaga,” encore airing sunday, july 23 on cbs.

The Special Originally Aired Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021 and Features Tony Bennett’s Historic 95 th Birthday Appearance

ONE LAST TIME: AN EVENING WITH TONY BENNETT AND LADY GAGA, a concert special honoring the musical legacy and enduring friendship of Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, will air a special encore this Sunday, July 23 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/ PT) on the CBS Television Network, and will be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+*. The Special originally aired Sunday, Nov. 28, 2021.

Filmed at two sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall in August 2021 to celebrate Bennett’s 95 th birthday, the live concert brings together the two incredible entertainers, honoring their shared love of the Great American Songbook. The special, which includes Tony Bennett’s historic last concert appearance before announcing his retirement from touring also features solo performances by him and Lady Gaga, followed by several of their famous duets. The musical repertoire for the special highlights the 10 years of the performers’ association, from their first duet recording “Lady Is a Tramp” to selections from their two collaborative albums, Cheek to Cheek and the newly released Love For Sale .

First, Lady Gaga sings the following jazz standards:

“Luck Be a Lady”

“Orange Colored Sky”

“Let’s Do It”

“New York, New York”

Next, Tony Bennett shares some of his signature songs, including:

“Watch What Happens”

“Steppin’ Out”

“Fly Me to the Moon”

“I Left My Heart in San Francisco”

The special culminates with the pairing of these remarkable artists on the following classic hits:

“Lady Is a Tramp”

“Love for Sale”

“Anything Goes”

ONE LAST TIME: AN EVENING WITH TONY BENNETT AND LADY GAGA is a production of Alex Coletti Productions. Alex Coletti, Bruce Gillmer, Jack Sussman, Danny Bennett and Bobby Campbell are executive producers. Alex Coletti also serves as director. Gillian Appleby is supervising producer and Allison Roithinger serves as producer.

*Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers will have access to stream live via the live feed of their local CBS affiliate on the service, as well as on demand. Paramount+ Essential subscribers will not have the option to stream live, but will have access to on-demand the day after the special airs.

RATING: TVPG-DL

CBS Press Contacts:

Show Contacts

Choose or create collections.

‘I Found a Friend’: Remembering Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s Remarkable Partnership

By Jon Blistein

Jon Blistein

Tony Bennett , who died today at the age of 96 , was a singular figure in music — a classic crooner who weathered the fickle winds of popular music over multiple decades by adapting but never fundamentally changing who he was. His initial rise and success were astounding in their own right, but the second half of Bennett’s career is just as fascinating. Starting in the Nineties, Bennett didn’t so much try to court younger audiences or artists but find some kind of common ground with them. 

Tony Bennett, Beloved Standards Crooner Who Bridged Generations, Dead at 96

How ‘unplugged’ made tony bennett an unlikely mtv star, lady gaga vamped her way through a tribute to tony bennett at the 2022 grammys.

There was his acclaimed MTV Unplugged from 1994 — featuring k.d. lang and Elvis Costello — and his two Duets albums in 2006 and 2011, which featured fellow legends both old (Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, Elton John) and new (John Legend, Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones). And while Bennett released collaborative albums with other artists, like lang and Diana Krall, it was his musical relationship with Lady Gaga that defined the final decade of his career.

May 9, 2011: “Lady, you’re a jazz singer”

Gaga and Bennett first crossed paths at the 2011 Robin Hood Foundation gala in New York City, where both were performing. Gaga had performed a rendition of Nat King Cole’s “Orange Colored Sky,” and after the show, she was told Bennett wanted to meet her. As Gaga recalled at their final concert: “I sang a couple jazz numbers that night, so I was real, real nervous to meet Tony Bennett — plus, I looked crazy. I had blonde in my hair and black in my hair, red lipstick, I had four big velvet moles on my face. I was doing my thing. And I went to meet Mr. Benett, and he said, ‘Lady, you are a jazz singer.’”

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term, summer 2011: duets ii.

Gaga and Bennett’s first song together was “The Lady Is a Tramp,” a Rodgers and Hart show tune from the 1937 musical, Babes in Arms . Recorded at Avatar Studio in Manhattan, the song eventually opened Bennett’s Duets II . Present at the recording session was the great journalist Gay Talese, who documented the entire proceedings for an article published in The New Yorker in September.

Dec. 12, 2011: “Why am I naked? ”

Jan. 11, 2012: as good as ella and america’s picasso.

In an interview with Rolling Stone , Bennett spoke about working with Gaga on “The Lady Is a Tramp”: “She came in so prepared and so knowledgeable about what to do. She’s as good as Ella Fitzgerald or anybody you want to come up with. And that’s without her dancing and her philosophies about breaking myths that are incorrect and social situations. She’s very strong. I know it sounds way out, but she could become America’s Picasso if they leave her alone and let her just do what she has to do. She is very, very talented.”

Sept. 28, 2012: The collaboration continues

While promoting his multi-lingual Viva Duets project, Bennett broke the news to Rolling Stone that he and Gaga were planning to record an album together. “Of all things, she called me from New Zealand and said, ‘I want to do a jazz album with you,’” Bennett said. “We’re gonna do a jazz album with [composer] Marion Evans, a big swing band, and I’m looking forward to it because a lot of people don’t know it, but she’s a phenomenal jazz singer.”

Spring – Summer 2013: Cheek to Cheek sessions

The recording of Cheek to Cheek finally got underway during the spring and summer of 2013. Gaga later recalled her nerves at the time, saying, “I was so nervous to go into the studio with him, I just wanted him to hear I have an authentic jazz voice and that I studied that. “f he can hear that, I’m okay. If he can’t hear it, I’m not an authentic jazz voice.”

June 18, 2014: Tattoo you

One of Lady Gaga’s latest tattoo? A sketch of Miles Davis’ trumpet , drawn by Bennett himself.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga)

July 29, 2014: “Anything Goes”

After nearly two years of waiting, Gaga and Bennett officially announced Cheek to Cheek and shared the first single, a version of the Cole Porter classic, “Anything Goes.” Coinciding with the album announcement, the pair took the stage at the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center in New York for a performance that was recorded and later released as Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!

Ahead of the concert, Bennett and Gaga teased the album to Rolling Stone , with Bennett saying, “It’s all the great songs of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, all the greatest composers. No other country has ever given the rest of the world so many magnificent songs, and they’re gonna live forever. Wait ’til you find out when she sings those songs.” 

Aug. 26, 2014: Behind the scenes

Ahead of the release of Cheek to Cheek , Gaga and Bennett shared a music video for their take on “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” which featured a ton of behind-the-scenes footage from the studio sessions. 

Sept. 19, 2014: Number One

Cheek to Cheek arrived and debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 Albums chart, selling 131,000 copies in its first week.

December 2014: A very good year

Gaga and Bennett capped off their big year together with a string of memorable performances. Early in the month, they stopped by The Tonight Show for a mini set that included “Cheek to Cheek” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).” Gaga also delivered a solo rendition of Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye.” A couple of weeks later, they rang in 2015 with a special New Year’s Eve performance in Las Vegas. 

Feb. 8, 2015: Grammy gold

At the 57th Grammy Awards, Cheek to Cheek was honored with Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, while Gaga and Bennett also took the stage for a rendition of the title track. In an interview with Rolling Stone backstage that night, Gaga reflected on her creative partnership and friendship with Bennett: “I think something I was craving for myself was a truly authentic collaboration, a true artistic exchange,” she said. “With Tony I found not only that, but I found a friend. Not only do we spend a lot of time together and make music, but we talk. It’s been an incredible experience all the way around.”

April to August 2015: On the road

Dec 16. 2016: an all-star tribute.

Lady Gaga joined Billy Joel, Elton John, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Stevie Wonder, and many more for a tribute concert celebrating Bennett’s 90th birthday. Gaga fittingly performed the first song she and Bennett recorded together, “The Lady Is a Tramp,” and also performed a rendition of the Édith Piaf’s “La Vie en Rose.” 

Feb. 1, 2021: Bittersweet reunion

After the whirlwind Cheek to Cheek era, Bennett and Gaga went their separate ways for a few years. Bennett continued to tour and released a collaborative album with Krall, Love Is Here to Stay , in 2018; and Gaga did Gaga, dropping Joanne in 2016 and Chromatica in 2020, while launching her acting career with A Star Is Born and House of Gucci as well. Word that the pair had reunited and recorded a new album finally arrived in 2021 — but it was accompanied by the news that Bennett was battling Alzheimer’s disease. 

According to an AARP Magazine story at the time, Bennett and Gaga recorded the Cheek to Cheek follow-up between 2018 and 2020, as Bennett’s Alzheimer’s was progressing. Bennett’s son, and longtime manager, Danny Bennett, recalled speaking with Gaga about going public with the crooner’s diagnosis: “I wanted to check with her to make sure she was cool, because she watches his back all the time,” he said. “She was like, ‘Absolutely, it’s just another gift that he can give to the world.’”

Aug. 3 & 5, 2021: A birthday bash and a big goodbye

Gaga and Bennett took the stage at Radio City Music Hall for a pair of special reunion concerts . The two shows were meant to celebrate Bennett’s 95th birthday, but they also proved to be the crooner’s last live performances. A few days after the concerts, the singer’s family canceled his remaining shows for the year and announced that he would retire from touring . The Radio City concerts were filmed and later aired as a concert special, One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga .

Sept. 30, 2021: Love for Sale

Dec. 17, 2021: unplugged (redux).

About a month before their Radio City Music Hall shows, Gaga and Bennett quietly recorded an intimate set for MTV’s long-running Unplugged series . The special finally aired in December, featuring performances of songs like “Night and Day” and I’ve Got You Under My Skin.”

April 3, 2022: A golden Grammy moment

O.j. simpson executor says ron goldman's family will get 'zero, nothing' from estate, inside jimmy buffett's tribute concert: mccartney, margaritas, and one hell of a parrothead party, jellyroll vs. jelly roll: pennsylvania band sues country star for trademark infringement, rico wade, producer with atlanta's pioneering organized noize, dead at 52.

Gaga also took the stage solo for a special tribute to Bennett , performing “Love for Sale” and “Do I Love You” in his honor. Bennett even appeared in a pre-taped video to introduce the performance, while footage of the pair performing and recording together played behind Gaga as she delivered an emotional rendition of “Do I Love You.” 

“I love you, Tony, we miss you,” Gaga said straight into the camera as the audience roared. 

Drake’s Response Track to Kendrick Lamar Appears to Have Leaked

• By Althea Legaspi

Santa Fe Klan Proves Mexican Hip-Hop Has a Place at Coachella

• By Tomás Mier

See Hurray for the Riff Raff Play 'The Past Is Still Alive' Tracks for 'Saturday Sessions'

• Saturday Sessions
• By Daniel Kreps

Watch Bruce Springsteen Play 'Seeds' For First Time Since 2016 at Mohegan Sun Arena

• Viva Uncasville!
• By Andy Greene

‘The Celebration of Mimi': Inside Mariah Carey’s Career-Spanning Las Vegas Comeback

• it's like that
• By Larisha Paul

Most Popular

Jodie foster pulled robert downey jr. aside on their 1995 film set and told him: 'i’m scared of what happens to you next' because of addiction, where to stream 'quiet on set: the dark side of kids tv' online, king charles just revealed the two royals who will be stepping up for him amid health struggles, dave chappelle says dinner with kanye west and "naked" bianca censori was "uncomfortable", you might also like, sublime rocks coachella as jakob nowell plays late father bradley’s guitar, emma roberts embraces mod style in vrg grl shift dress, barry keoghan in burberry and more stars at celsius’ cosmic desert coachella party 2024, the best running water bottles according to marathoners, ruben östlund proposes requiring licenses to use cameras: ‘you need one for a gun’, coyotes’ name, logo to remain in phoenix while team relocates.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

Things you buy through our links may earn  Vox Media  a commission.

The End Is Never Really the End

A dispatch from tony bennett’s final radio city music hall performance with lady gaga..

Though unused for the past 18 months, Radio City Music Hall’s 6,105 red velvet chairs will likely need a tune-up by the end of this week thanks to Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, and the 27 standing ovations the pair received during their miraculous, magnificent concert there on Thursday night (August 5).

It was the second and final performance of “ One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, ” and the sold-out audience had come to pay their respects — and in their sequined, bedazzled best. Many dressed for the occasion in ball gowns, tuxedos, and gemstone-drenched smoking jackets; masks were sparse (though attendees were required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter the venue), but there were even a few rhinestone-studded face coverings spotted in Radio City’s teeming lobby beforehand. When Gaga made her entrance just after 9 p.m., in a sparkling white ball gown, and struck a pose, the crowd — which included Hillary and Bill Clinton, who received a shout-out from the mistress of ceremonies — leapt to their feet and cheered. When the curtain rose an hour later to reveal Bennett for the first time, standing by the piano with his arms outstretched in elated greeting, they stood — clapping and waving, this time as if facing an old friend for the first time in years — until he picked up his microphone and began to sing. The vast majority of those present for Bennett’s final performance at Radio City Music Hall understood the assignment: We were here to watch a beloved New York icon say good-bye to the stage, with his decorated protégé giving him a proper send-off.

“One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga” was as much a festive homecoming as it was a poignant farewell. This week’s shows marked the first time Bennett, who turned 95 on August 3, performed in public since his family revealed his Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis in February. Last night’s show was also, as the program’s title suggests, a coda for the singer at the end of a seven-decade career that began across the East River, where a teenage Anthony Benedetto worked as a singing waiter in his native Astoria before his smooth tenor won over fans across geography and generations. Though Bennett’s early fame in the ’50s and ’60s earned him deserved accolades, his first Grammy awards, and the praise of Frank Sinatra, Bennett enjoyed an unusual resurgence in his senior years, when he continued to sing the standards of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and the rest of the Great American Songbook with renewed fervor thanks to 1994’s successful MTV Unplugged special, which restored his relevance. A handful of albums featuring collaborations with contemporary chart-toppers — from Billy Joel and Sheryl Crow to Amy Winehouse — followed, reinvigorating the elder statesman’s career.

One collaboration — with another Italian American, jazz-worshipping native New Yorker — has proven to be more fruitful than the rest. Lady Gaga, like Bennett, grew up with an affinity for the Great American Songbook classics, and was thrilled when he wanted to meet her after watching her croon Nat King Cole’s “Orange Colored Sky” at a 2011 benefit concert in their hometown. (In Gaga’s opening solo set at Radio City, she introduced “Orange Colored Sky” by recalling how she briefly panicked that night ten years ago and demanded her crew “make me look like a lady, damn it,” changing from latex stagewear into a more subdued outfit to meet Bennett.) Later that year, she joined him to sing a duet of “The Lady Is a Tramp” for his Duets II: The Great Performances album, kick-starting a prolific, chart-topping friendship in the decade since; they released and toured behind Cheek to Cheek , their love letter to their beloved standards, in 2014, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart.

The duo had been working on Love for Sale , Cheek to Cheek ’s follow-up due out October 1, after Bennett’s 2016 Alzheimer’s diagnosis. When AARP first reported that Bennett had been declining in recent years due to the neurodegenerative disease, it was noted that he often seemed bewildered and confused while trying to communicate in the studio, but that singing remained a grounding constant in his life. Music is remarkably therapeutic for Alzheimer’s patients, in that it’s been known to miraculously, though temporarily, retie the broken threads of memory: Gayatri Devi, Bennett’s neurologist, told AARP that performing “kept him on his toes and also stimulated his brain in a significant way,” a fact apparent to the Radio City crowd six months after the news of his diagnosis. Bennett did, indeed, appear lucid and downright jovial at Radio City: He scatted in time; his vibrato rarely warbled off-pitch. He rolled through 17 songs in total, including a trio of rousing numbers with Gaga, his moving rendition of Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” and an encore of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” his career-defining single, with hardly a stumble over a single lyric. The only reminders of Bennett’s condition came in his sparse stage banter between songs and his occasional lean on the piano for support: The swells of applause were often met with a “Wow!” or “Beautiful!” and nothing more, save for one heartfelt thank you for the “beautiful audience” or a triumphant fist raised in the wake of a spirited trumpet solo from Brian Newman, a longtime friend and collaborator of Gaga’s. The set list offered bittersweet echoes of the significance of the evening as well. “This Is All I Ask,” a 1958 ballad by Gordon Jenkins that Bennett recorded for his 1960 album Alone Together (and again with Josh Groban for Duets II ) , struck a tear-jerking chord, especially in its final words: “Let the music play, as long as there’s a song to sing / And I will stay younger than spring.”

But the tears were kept mostly at bay, as “One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga” was, undoubtedly, a celebration of a life and legacy that hasn’t seen the curtain just yet. Gaga, the hostess of the evening, made it very clear throughout her set this was all for Bennett. She shared personal anecdotes at any given opportunity, noting before singing Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me” that the ballad was written in 1926, the year of Bennett’s birth; she added that the tune has become a difficult one for her to sing, though every phrase that followed was as lovely and heartfelt as the sentiment that introduced it. She added that “La Vie en Rose,” an Edith Piaf standard she stunned with in 2018’s A Star Is Born , is in her repertoire because of him: “I never would have sang this song if Tony didn’t tell me to.” She encouraged the audience to make Bennett smile and laugh before grabbing a top hat and roaring through “New York, New York,” an extravagant and appropriate warm-up for Bennett’s final act. And after she made way for Bennett to savor his own spotlight, she returned, first to sing with him, and later to escort him from the stage — slowly, so he could wave back at the sea of hands that were waving him good-bye.

• vulture section lede
• vulture homepage lede
• tony bennett
• cheek to cheek

Most Viewed Stories

• A Hidden Sexual-Assault Scandal at the New York Philharmonic
• No One’s Watching the Best Comedy on Netflix
• The 10 Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch This Weekend
• Civil War Isn’t the Movie You Think It Is
• A Reasonable List of Demands for Season Two of Fallout
• Fallout Series-Premiere Recap: Orange Colored Sky

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

• Lower case letters (a-z)
• Upper case letters (A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

You'll cry watching Lady Gaga escort Tony Bennett off stage at his final concert

Gaga thanks Bennett for his service and contributions to the music industry before escorting him off stage at his final performance on the CBS special One Last Time.

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett might've performed their last-ever concert as an on-stage duo, but their emotional legacy will live on through the music they've made together—a decade-long partnership Gaga paid dutiful tribute to as she escorted the 95-year-old off stage for the last time.

"Tony, we're all so grateful to have witnessed your talent, your generosity, your creativity, your kindness, and your service through all the years," the House of Gucci star tells Bennett in CBS and EW's cohosted clip below, recorded in the final moments of their One Last Time concert special that aired Sunday night on the network.

After Bennett, whose family revealed his ongoing struggle with Alzheimer's disease earlier this year , thanked Gaga, she looked into his eyes for the show's emotional conclusion: "Mr. Bennett, it would be my honor to escort you off the stage," she said, and took his arm as they walked out of view to a thunderous standing ovation from the crowd at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall.

The two-night concert series—recorded in August as part of Bennett's birthday celebration—also included the pair performing individual numbers as well as duets from their second joint album, Love for Sale , which scored Grammy nominations for Album of the Year and Record of the Year ("I Get a Kick Out of You") last week. Bennett finished the gig with a signature tune, belting "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" before leaving the stage with Gaga.

In a 60 Minutes special tied to Gaga and Bennett's shows together, Bennett's wife, Susan Benedetto, spoke to Anderson Cooper about how the legend's diagnosis has impaired his short-term memory, but his singing talents and ability to recite lyrics remain intact. During the One Last Time broadcast on Sunday, Bennett introduced Gaga on stage by name for the first time in "a long time," according to the Oscar-winning pop icon, who got emotional when Bennett recognized her during the set.

"I had to keep it together because we had a sold-out show, and I had a job to do. But I'll tell you, when I walked out on that stage and he said, 'It's Lady Gaga,' my friend saw me, and it was very special," she told Cooper, later adding: "It's not a sad story. It's emotional. It's hard to watch somebody change. I think what's been beautiful about this and what's been challenging is to see how it affects him in some ways, but to see how it doesn't affect his talent. I think he really pushed through something to give the world the gift of knowing that things can change and you can still be magnificent."

One Last Time is now streaming on Paramount+. Watch EW's clip—cohosted with CBS—of Gaga escorting Bennett off stage at his final concert in the Instagram post above.

Hear more on all of this week's must-see picks in EW's What to Watch Podcast , hosted by Gerrad Hall.

Related content:

• Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett revisit their first duet in emotional One Last Time preview
• Lady Gaga breaks down as Tony Bennett sketches her for Love for Sale album cover: 'It makes me cry!'
• Lady Gaga rewrote classic Cole Porter lyrics to honor Tony Bennett on Love for Sale

Related Articles

site categories

Deadline contenders television 2024 arrivals & panels gallery: tom hiddleston, lily gladstone, maya rudolph, kali reis, jodie foster, kurt russell & more, tony bennett’s ‘unplugged’ specials set to air back-to-back on mtv three times starting tonight; cbs to air ‘one last time’ concert special sunday – update.

By Erik Pedersen

Erik Pedersen

Managing Editor

More Stories By Erik

• Eleanor Coppola Dies: ‘Hearts Of Darkness’ Emmy Winner & Wife Of Francis Ford Coppola For 61 Years Was 87
• 2024 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming
• O.J. Simpson Dies: Football Superstar & Actor Acquitted Of Double Murder In Televised Trial Of The Century Was 76

UPDATED with CBS special: MTV has set three back-to-back re-airings of its two Unplugged specials featuring Tony Bennett , commemorating the beloved singer’s death today at 96. MTV Unplugged : Tony Bennett from 1994 will return tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT, followed by 2021’s MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga at 11.

Both will repeat starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Related Stories

Tony bennett: a career in photos.

Tony Bennett Tributes Pour In From Elton John, Amy Winehouse Foundation, Harry Connick Jr, Nancy Pelosi, Alec Baldwin, More

When Bennett was a guest on Late Night with Conan O’Brien later that year, the host asked him about the reasons for his newfound hip status. “Hey, I’ve been unplugged all my life,” the singer said.

Fast-forward 17 years, and the cable channel aired a second MTV Unplugged with Bennett, this time also featuring his latter-day collaborator Lady Gaga. That show was recorded in NYC on July 2, 2021, a few months after Bennett and his family revealed his Alzheimer’s diagnosis . He was 94 and she was 35 when they performed a slew of Cole Porter standards they had recorded a few months earlier for the Top 10 album Love for Sale.

That LP gave Bennett the Guinness World Record for oldest person to release an album of all-original material. MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga was not released as an album, however.

CBS will air One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, a concert special honoring the musical legacy and enduring friendship of the two musical icons, on Sunday, July 23 at 9 pm. It originally aired Sunday, November 28, 2021.

Must Read Stories

Despite b- score, lots of heat with a24-record $24m-$26m+ opening.

Podcast Back In Feisty Fashion With Teamsters Negotiator Lindsay Dougherty

Remembering the matriarch of legendary filmmaker family, walter hill on steve mcqueen, eddie murphy & ‘the warriors’: film that lit my fuse.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Lady Gaga Pays Tribute to Tony Bennett: ‘I Will Miss My Friend Forever’

Lady Gaga has paid tribute to her friend and collaborator Tony Bennett, following his death on July 21 at age 96.

“I will miss my friend forever,” Gaga wrote in a lengthy Instagram post late Sunday night. “I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together. With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power. We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasn’t an act. Our relationship was very real.”

Popular on Variety

The pair released two albums together, including 2021’s “Love for Sale,” a Cole Porter tribute that included solo selections such as “Do I Love You,” “I Get a Kick Out of You, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “Let’s Do It.” It was Bennett’s 61st and final studio recording. Their previous collaboration was on 2014’s “Cheek to Cheek.”

“Sure he taught me about music, about showbiz life, but he also showed me how to keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight. ‘Straight ahead,’ he’d say. He was an optimist, he believed in quality work AND quality life,” Gaga said. “Plus, there was the gratitude…Tony was always grateful. He served in WWII, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and sang jazz with the greatest singers and players in the world.”

Gaga continued, “I’ve been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye. Though there were 5 decades between us, he was my friend. My real true friend. Our age difference didn’t matter– in fact, it gave us each something neither of us had with most people. We were from two different stages in life entirely — inspired.

As part of their promotional campaign for the “Love for Sale” album, a behind-the-scenes video captured the endearing relationship and friendship between the two renowned artists. In one scene, Gaga is reduced to tears as Bennett  sits down to sketch her. “I was thinking of doing a sketch of you for the cover, a nice, clean picture of you,” he tells her. In what becomes the artwork for the album, Gaga tells Bennett, “It’s beautiful, it’s so beautiful. It makes me cry.”

Read Gaga’s full tribute below.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga)

More From Our Brands

Santa fe klan proves mexican hip-hop has a place at coachella, the discontinued daytona le mans is now selling for $320,000, coyotes’ name, logo to remain in phoenix while team relocates, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, peacemaker season 2: james gunn shares photo from first day of filming , verify it's you, please log in.

Forever Young: Tony Bennett's Enduring Relationship with Youth

Bennett's long career created generations of global fans...

April 11, 2024

Throughout his long and illustrious career, Tony Bennett displayed a remarkable ability for connecting with younger audiences and performers alike, consistently making his mark with each new generation of music lovers and musicians that encountered him and his body of work. Speaking to his true artistry, as much as he loved to win an audience’s admiration, he never ever pandered or discounted his craft to score points.

No, Tony Bennett was forever steadfast in sticking to his guns, true to himself and his art. Despite repeated attempts from record labels and management to pressure Bennett into adapting to whatever styles and fashions du jour, Bennett always maintained that class never went out of style — a maxim which he proved right time and time again.

tony bennett

mtv appreciation display

A large acrylic appreciation piece presented to the singer reading "Tony / Thank You For Being A Part Of / Our 1988 TV Or MTV Campaign," featuring a strip of film of Tony Bennett and a blown-up remote control.

Bennett’s latest and greatest resurgence with young audiences happened in the 1990s, when the artist was in his late sixties. This was in no small part due to the efforts of his son Danny Bennett, who had taken on managerial duties for his father and tirelessly worked to further his career. Danny sincerely believed that younger audiences, unfamiliar with his father, would take to his music when given exposure to it. He thus went about booking Bennett for regular performances on Late Night With David Letterman, with its hip audience, and to appear on shows like the Simpsons, Sesame Street and various MTV programs. Father and son were adamant that this should not be called a comeback, however, remarking in a New York Times interview that he had never gone anywhere!

The epoch of this resurgence occurred in 1994 after he appeared on MTV’s Unplugged, with guest stars like Elvis Costello and k.d. Lang. Quipping on the occasion that “I’ve been unplugged my whole career,” Bennett sang a selection of his greatest along with some surprise entries. The performance was a smash hit, paving the way for various further successes and winning him one of many Grammys, with the New York Times remarking that Bennett had not just bridged the generation gap, he had “demolished it.”

lady gaga signed 2015 post-grammy performance promotional poster

A promotional poster for Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga's February 8, 2015 special post-Grammys performance at The Wiltern in Los Angeles signed by Bennett and Gaga. The poster is numbered "6/100."

Another highpoint in Bennett’s resurgence and yet another proof that “class never goes out of style” came in the summer of 1998, when he performed for over 100,000 mud-soaked revelers at a notoriously rainy Glastonbury music festival in the UK. Dressed immaculately in a suit and tie, Bennett enamored the crowd with his sleek, heartfelt performance, which appropriately consisted solely of songs about the weather.

And that was just the beginning…

Be sure to register and bid now on the incredible history of Tony Bennett.

TONY BENNETT:

A life well-lived.

Julien*s auction house to the stars

Julien's Auctions | 13007 S. Western Avenue, Gardena, California 90249

Phone 310-836-1818 Fax 310-742-0155

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Entertainment

Lady Gaga Celebrated 38th Birthday at Prix-Fixe Dinner with Friends, Boyfriend: 'He Let Her Shine' (Exclusive)

“She was smiling and laughing all night,” an insider tells PEOPLE of the intimate gathering to celebrate the singer

The Hollywood Curtain/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Lady Gaga was surrounded by loved ones on her special day!

Earlier this week, the star celebrated her 38th birthday at Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica, California. The dinner was a low-key celebration with a posse of pals, as well as her longtime beau, Michael Polansky , who “let her shine,” a source tells PEOPLE. 

According to the insider, Gaga arrived with Polansky and she “seemed great.”

The singer sported an edgy, biker-chic ensemble , while Polansky was “dressed very casually,” the source notes.

“They looked happy together,” they add. “He let her shine and made sure she had everything she needed.”

Gaga, Polanksy and “a small group of friends” celebrated the singer in a private room at Giorgio Baldi, where they enjoyed a prix fixe menu of the celebrity-favorite Italian spot’s specialities, including antipasti, pasta and steak, per the source.

“She was smiling and laughing all night,” the insider tells PEOPLE of the intimate gathering, adding, “It was a fun celebration.”

Gaga and Polansky have been linked since early 2020, when they were photographed kissing at a New Year's Eve party in Las Vegas. Shortly after, the couple went Instagram-official after spending a PDA-packed weekend together in Miami for the Super Bowl LIV.

" They weren't shy about showing off PDA ," an insider told PEOPLE of the trip at the time. "They seemed very happy together."

In November 2021, a source told PEOPLE that despite how crazy she is about Polansky, Gaga is in no rush to get engaged to the businessman , noting that the pair “almost act like a married couple already.”

"When they are together, it's obvious that Gaga is crazy about him," the insider added at the time. "She always giggles and touches him. They are very affectionate and have the best chemistry."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In addition to celebrating with Polansky and her pals, Gaga also marked her special day with a message on Instagram, which she shared alongside a stripped down selfie — presumably snapped before she donned her birthday glam .

“Today has been so special—I can’t remember a time I was so happy on my bday,” the A Star Is Born actress wrote in the caption. “I am in love with my best friend, my family and friends are loving and kind and healthy. I feel like my heart is bursting with gratitude for my own health and MUSIC.”

The star went on to share that she is “writing some of my best music in as long as I can remember” and reminded fans that her film, Joker: Folie à Deux , will be hitting theaters soon.

“AND seeing messages from all over the world from little monsters—artists—publications that love my work it means so much to me,” she continued. “Thank you thank you thank you for loving me the way you do and for having such a real love for my songs—I’ve been writing ❤️pop songs since I was a little girl I can’t believe I still get to do what I love. This year will be an important and meaningful year for us I know.”

“Music changes people lives im so honored I get to be a part of that in this life,” Gaga concluded.

Related Articles

Josh Groban to Host Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2024 Gala, Which Will Toast Late Legend Tony Bennett

On Monday (March 24), Jazz at Lincoln Center revealed the host for its upcoming all-star tribute to late legend Tony Bennett , which doubles as the center's annual gala fundraiser. Tony-nominated, Billboard 200-topping singer and actor Josh Groban is set to host the April 17 even at the Frederick P. Rose Hall in Manhattan's Lincoln Center.

The evening, titled Celebrating Tony Bennett, will honor the jazz vocal great and raise money for Jazz at Lincoln Center, with items from Tony Bennett's personal collection being auctioned off. Wynton Marsalis, managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, will lead the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra throughout the evening, with Rubén Blades, Bernadette Peters, Kristin Chenoweth, Norm Lewis, Kurt Elling, Ekep Nkwelle, Robbie Lee and Shenel Johns providing vocal performances. Jazz pianist Bill Charlap will also perform, in addition to receiving an award for artistic excellence. Tim Jackson, former artistic director of the Monterey Jazz Festival, and Randall Kline, founder of SFJAZZ, will receive the Ed Bradley award for leadership in jazz at the April 17 gala. You can get more information about the gala celebration at the organization's website .

Over the course of his impossibly long career, Tony Bennett helped define what it meant to be an interpreter of the Great American Songbook, connecting jazz, pop, Broadway and Tin Pan Alley with his elegant, smooth phrasing. Working with jazz giants from Count Basie to Bill Evans, Bennett continued to deliver gold during the last decade of his career, recording two jazz-inflected albums with Lady Gaga ( Cheek to Cheek in 2014; Love for Sale in 2021) and one with Diana Krall ( Love Is Here to Stay in 2018) before passing away at the age of 96 in July 2023 . Although he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 2016, Bennett continued to perform and release music until 2021, wrapping his touring career with a concert at Radio City Music Hall alongside collaborator and devotee Lady Gaga in August 2021.

More from Billboard

• André 3000 Says OutKast Partner Big Boi Had the Best Reaction to Bars-Free Flute Album 'New Blue Sun'