Barry Manilow has announced new tour dates just weeks after he revealed his lung cancer diagnosis.
The legendary “Copacabana” singer, 82, said in a statement Monday that he underwent surgery to treat his stage-one lung cancer and is ready to get back on stage — and he even added more shows to his planned arena tour.
“SURPRISE!!! Barry is feeling great…so great that he’s decided to add six additional concerts to his existing March schedule,” the Grammy, Emmy and Tony winner’s team wrote on his social media platforms.
The shows were previously announced as his farewell tour and the dates are listed on his website as “The Last Concerts.”
Encouraging fans to get tickets for the tour dates, the statement said: “Years from now, when you look back on these dates, you’ll want to know you were there to say goodbye.”
Manilow’s previously planned January tour dates were rescheduled for March and April. His tour now starts February 27 in Florida. New shows set for March include six stops in Charlotte, Norfolk, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Nashville, and Lexington.
Earlier this month, Manilow shared a picture of himself recovering from surgery in a hospital gown with the caption “Better today!”
He announced his diagnosis in December, on the day after his final charity Christmas concert in Palm Desert, California.
“As many of you know I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” he wrote December 22 on social media.
“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,” he said. “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.”
He continued, “The bad news is that now that the Christmas Gift Of Love concerts are over I’m going into surgery to have the spot removed. The doctors do not believe it has spread and I’m taking tests to confirm their diagnosis. So that’s it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and I Love Lucy reruns.”
In addition to The Last Concerts, Manilow is scheduled to continue his Las Vegas residency throughout the year, and return to the U.K. for shows in six cities.
When Manilow announced his U.K. concerts in September, he wrote on his website, “It was odd flying home because I wasn’t tired, my voice had held up for the entire run and each show was more exciting than the last. I wasn’t even out of breath at the end of each show.”
“But I guess ‘leave ‘em wanting more’ was a good rule to follow. After all, I’m 100 years old and any day now I’m probably going to lose my hair, gain a big pot belly and need a cane to dance around to ‘Copacabana.’”
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