Barry Manilow turns 80 on Saturday, June 17, but he’s not looking for anyone to rent out the “Copacabana” to throw him a huge party. In fact, he’d rather ignore the whole thing.
“I’m turning everything down,” he says of friends’ and family’s efforts celebrate his big day. “I don’t like my birthdays anyway. They just scare me. This one … I don’t know what to expect. I don’t.”
“This is a big number, and I never thought I’d get this far,” he tells ABC Audio. “I never thought I’d reach this. My family all died in their early 70s, so I have a blank slate. I don’t know what is about to hit me.”
He calls the milestone “exciting on the one hand and terrifying on the other.”
But even without party plans, Manilow knows what he’ll be doing the night of his birthday. “By accident, I’m going to be onstage on my birthday,” he says. “So God only knows what that’s going to be.”
No doubt that night will involve fans singing “Happy Birthday” to the legendary entertainer, and in terms of his career, he’s got plenty to celebrate. He’s won two Emmys, a Tony and a Grammy; he’s been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame; he’s scored 13 #1 hits on the Adult Contemporary chart; and he’s sold more than 85 million records worldwide, making him one of the world’s bestselling artists.
And as he turns 80, he’s got even more to be happy about: After years of waiting, his original musical Harmony is heading to Broadway; he’s got a successful Las Vegas residency; and he still tours around the country when he wants to.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.