Barry Manilow is taking a break from touring after “pushing too hard”.
The 83-year-old singer – who cancelled a number of shows earlier this year amid his health battles – abruptly pulled the plug on his Las Vegas residency shows at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino at short notice on Friday (21.08.26) and Saturday (22.08.26), and now he’s confirmed he is stepping off stage until October to look after his health.
The Mandy hitmaker said in a statement shared to Instagram: “Hi everybody — Barry here. And I want you to be the first to know that we’re going to take a quick break.
“We just finished a fantastic summer tour. 29 shows in 68 days. The shows were fantastic. The audiences were fantastic. And I sounded fantastic. But it seems that we were pushing a little too hard.
“Now we all need to sit down and shut up. So, we’re going to take a break until we return to the Westgate Las Vegas on October 8th. When I’ll be singing like a bird. I hope to see you then.”
New residency dates will be announced next week, the statement added.
The Copacabana hitmaker cancelled gigs in Las Vegas in February as well as his arena tour launch dates that month and in March, followed by his April concerts because he was still “not quite ready” to return to the stage.
Barry was diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer in December 2025 after the disease was detected during an MRI after hearing about recent bouts of bronchitis, and he underwent a lobectomy to remove a “cancerous tumour” on his left lung.
The Can’t Smile Without You singer – who confirmed he is cancer-free three months later – recently said he “never” thought cancer would “get me” because of being “too busy” with his illustrious music career.
In May, he told the Los Angeles Times: “I never thought cancer would get me – it wasn’t in the cards.
“They wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible, so we made a deal: I’d finish the couple of weeks of shows that I had, then I’d go to the hospital, and they’d remove it.
“It was supposed to be a no-brainer – it hadn’t spread yet, thank goodness. But then my AFib kicked in, and acid reflux kicked in, and pneumonia kicked in. They rushed me to the ICU for seven days.”
Asked why the Grammy award winner “never thought cancer would get” him, he explained: “I’m too busy. Pretty stupid.
“What I realised is that I’ve always been the leader – leader of the band, leader of an audience – but I wasn’t the leader of this one.
“That was a big lesson for me. I had to rely on everybody else. Nurses, doctors, friends – you should see some of the notes people have sent.”
Barry said it was “agony” that he could not return to the stage for some time because his recovery, after an operation to remove a cancerous spot from one of his lungs, has been taking longer than expected.
