Tony Bennett dies: ‘The best singer in the business’ – how words from his idol Frank Sinatra changed his career
“For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business.”
Coming from Frank Sinatra himself, in an interview in 1965, there could be no higher compliment.
Sinatra was a huge influence on Bennett, who has died aged 96.
The pair had become firm friends and went on to perform together several times over the years.
Bennett was the younger singer – Sinatra died in May 1998 at the age of 82.
But as they both matured, Sinatra always continued to call Bennett “kid” – even into old age.
Bennett said his idol’s words in that 1965 article changed his career.
Two years earlier, a then 36-year-old Bennett had picked up his first Grammy for his signature song I Left My Heart In San Francisco.
In 2022, almost 60 years later, the pop and jazz singer was awarded his 20th, sharing the honour with his superstar collaborator Lady Gaga – at the tender age of 95.
Bennett performs with Lady Gaga
During a career in entertainment spanning eight decades, Bennett was one of the last of America’s great crooners – one who achieved the rare feat of only seeming to grow in popularity in later life.
With more than 70 albums to his name, he is perhaps the only artist ever to have had new albums charting in the US in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s – and in 2014, he broke his own record as the oldest living artist to hit the top of the weekly Billboard 200 album chart.
Performing well into his 90s, even after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, Bennett was an entertainer beloved by all generations; Gaga was just one of the modern-day artists he collaborated with in later years.
Paul McCartney, John Legend, Christina Aguilera and Michael Buble, as well as Sinatra, all feature on the long list of others, and his 2011 duet with Amy Winehouse, Body And Soul, was the last song she recorded before her death.
“To me, life is a gift, and it’s a blessing to just be alive,” the singer once said.
It was a quote he became known for, the title of one of his memoirs, and one he used again when he went public about his illness in 2021.
“Life is a gift – even with Alzheimer’s,” was the message shared on his social media accounts in February 2021.
Later that year, he performed his final farewell shows.
Grief, war and discovery
Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on 3 August 1926, in Queens in New York City, to parents John and Anna, the young Tony and his older brother and sister, John and Mary, were raised by their mother following his father’s death when he was aged just 10.
As a child, he loved to sing and paint, and his passions were nurtured at the High School of Industrial Arts in Manhattan.
As he grew older, he developed a love of music listening to artists such as Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and James ‘Jimmy’ Durante on the radio.
During his teenage years, Bennett sang while waiting tables, before enlisting in the army during the Second World War.
He served in the Battle of the Bulge – the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front, launched in 1944 through the forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg – and participated in the liberation of a concentration camp, according to his official website’s biography.
During his time in Europe, he performed with military bands and, following his return to America, he went on to have vocal studies at the American Theatre Wing School in New York.
The singer’s first nightclub performance came in 1946, alongside trombonist Tyree Glenn at the Shangri-La in Queens’ Astoria neighbourhood.
Three years later came his big break, when comedian Bob Hope noticed him working with actress and singer Pearl Bailey in Greenwich Village.
At the time, he was performing under the stage name of Joe Bari.
‘We’ll call you Tony Bennett’
Hope liked Bennett’s singing so much that he met him in his dressing room afterwards to ask him to perform with him at the city’s famed Paramount Theatre.
There was just one condition.
“But first he told me he didn’t care for my stage name and asked me what my real name was,” Bennett recalled. “I told him, ‘My name is Anthony Dominick Benedetto’. And he said, ‘We’ll call you Tony Bennett’.
“And that’s how it happened. A new Americanised name – the start of a wonderful career and a glorious adventure.”
Bennett’s first singles came in the 1950s, including chart-toppers Because Of You, Rags To Riches, and a remake of Hank Williams’ Cold, Cold Heart.
Dozens more singles followed and his voice took him around the world, selling millions of records and performing to sold-out venues – as well as to numerous stars and presidents.
He went on to release dozens of albums throughout the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, but began to struggle with drug use as his style of music fell out of style.
Following a 10-year absence from the US album charts, he returned with The Art Of Excellence in 1986 and continued releasing music at pace in the 1990s, becoming an unlikely favourite of MTV.
Pic: AP
Legendary duets add to his longevity
In 2001, well into his 70s, the singer was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Grammys – but there was no sign of him slowing down.
He became known for his collaborations and his first modern-day duets album, Duets: An American Classic, was released in 2006, featuring performances with artists including McCartney, Elton John, Barbra Streisand and Bono.
After more than 50 years in the business, it was one of the bestselling records of his career.
Pic: AP
Duets II came in 2011, featuring artists including Aretha Franklin and John Mayer, as well as Gaga and Winehouse.
Debuting at the top of the Billboard charts, it went on to win two Grammys, and his friendship with Gaga led to the release of their first collaborative album, Cheek To Cheek, in 2014.
Their second, Love For Sale, Bennett’s final album, came in 2021.
As well as his music, Bennett was also known for his painting, and had his work exhibited at galleries around the world.
He was even commissioned by the United Nations, painting one piece for the organisation’s 50th anniversary.
He was also the author of five books, including the New York Times bestseller Life Is A Gift: The Zen Of Bennett, published in 2012, and Just Getting Started, released in 2016.
Pic: AP
Family and charitable legacy
A father of four, Bennett was married three times.
At his wedding to first wife Patricia Beech in 1952, some 2,000 female fans reportedly gathered outside the ceremony – dressed in black in mock mourning. The couple went on to have two sons, Danny and Dae, before they separated.
Bennett went on to marry actress Sandra Grant, with whom he had daughters Joanna and Antonia, and in 2007 married long-term partner Susan Crow, now Susan Benedetto.
In 1999, he founded Exploring the Arts with Susan, to help strengthen the role of the arts in public high school education in the US.
One of the organisation’s first projects was the establishment of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, a public high school set up in 2001 in Bennett’s hometown of Astoria, Queens.
The singer’s other charitable endeavours included helping to raise millions of dollars for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, which established a research fund in his name, and lending his artwork to the American Cancer Society’s annual holiday greeting cards to raise funds.
Along with his many gongs for his music, Bennett was also honoured with the Martin Luther King Center’s “salute to greatness” award for his efforts in fighting racial discrimination, after joining the activist in the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march in 1965.
The singer’s retirement from performing was announced in 2021, with his son Danny, also his manager, saying it was down to doctor’s orders due to the strain of travelling.
Performing a medley tribute to the man she described as “an incredible mentor, and friend, and father figure” at the Grammys in 2022, Gaga appeared emotional as she finished on stage. “I love you, Tony. We miss you.”
Following the singer’s death, the music industry mourns one of the last great performers of his generation.
For Bennett, life was a gift – and for millions of fans over the decades, it was a gift he gave right back.
Netflix has agreed a $72bn (£54bn) deal to secure Warner Bros Discovery’s film and TV studios and supercharge its library through rights to top franchises including Harry Potter and Game Of Thrones.
It had been reported that the US streaming giant was in exclusive talks over the deal following a bidding war for the assets.
Paramount Skydance and Comcast, the ultimate owner of Sky News, were the rival suitors for the bulk of WBD that also includes HBO, the HBO Max streaming platform and DC Studios.
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While Netflix has agreed a $27.75 per share price with WBD, which equates to the $72bn purchase figure, the deal gives the assets a total value of $82.7bn.
It will see WBD come under Netflix ownership once its remaining Discovery Global division, mostly legacy cable networks including CNN and the TNT sports channels, is separated.
However, the agreement is set to attract scrutiny from competition regulators, particularly in the United States and Europe.
Both WBD and Netflix do not see the prospect of the deal being completed until late 2026 or 2027.
The main stumbling block is likely to be the fact that Netflix, which has hits including Stranger Things and Squid Game, is already the world’s biggest streaming service.
Stranger Things is one of Netflix’s biggest hits. Pic: Netflix
Further drama could come in the form of a complaint by Paramount, which had previously made a bid for the whole company.
CNBC reported this week that Paramount had claimed the auction process was biased in favour of Netflix.
Entertainment news provider Variety has also reported that major studios fear an institutional crisis for Hollywood unless the move is blocked.
Ted Sarandos, the co-chief executive of Netflix, said: “By combining Warner Bros’ incredible library of shows and movies – from timeless classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to modern favourites like Harry Potter and Friends – with our culture-defining titles like Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters and Squid Game, we’ll be able to do that even better.
“Together, we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling.”
Netflix shares were trading down more than 3% in pre-market deals but recovered much of that loss when Wall Street opened. Those for WBD were up by more than 2%.
David O’Hara, managing director at the advisory firm MKI Global Partners, said of the proposed deal: “The 12-18 month timeline signals a long antitrust review, but despite the overlap between Netflix and HBO Max, there is a path to approval through possible HBO divestment.
“Netflix would not accept a $5.8bn break fee if it didn’t see at least a small chance of the deal closing.”
Four people have been killed in the latest US strike on an alleged drug boat amid growing unease at the legality of the attacks.
The small vessel, which was hit in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, is the 22nd destroyed by the US military on suspicion of drug trafficking.
It is the first such attack after a pause of nearly three weeks.
At least 87 people have now been killed during Donald Trump‘s “war” with drug cartels, which has also seen vessels targeted in the Caribbean Sea, including near Venezuela.
The vessel explodes in flames. Pic: Reuters
Video of the strike shows a small boat moving across the water before it is suddenly hit by a large explosion.
The boat is then seen engulfed in flames and billowing smoke as the camera zooms out.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, US Southern Command described those killed as “four male narco-terrorists“.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific,” the post said.
The Trump administration has been weighing options to combat what it has portrayed as Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro‘s role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans.
The socialist leader has denied having any links to the illegal drug trade.
Venezuela has said the boat attacks amount to murder – and that President Trump’s true motivation is to oust Mr Maduro and access its oil.
It comes as an investigation in Washington DC has started looking into the very first strike on an alleged drug boat on 2 September in international waters near Venezuela.
On that occasion, US navy admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley is accused of ordering a follow-up strike to kill the survivors.
This reportedly followed demands from defence secretary Pete Hegseth that the navy “kill them all”.
The admiral briefed politicians in a series of closed-door briefings at the US Capitol on Thursday, and denied there was any such order from Mr Hegseth.
Admiral Frank ‘Mitch’ Bradley arrives at the US Capitol for a classified briefing on Thursday. Pic: Reuters
Mr Hegseth said the admiral “made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat”.
But speaking on Air Force One last Sunday, the president said he was unaware of the second strike and would not have wanted it, though he backed Mr Hegseth.
Read more:
Hegseth blames ‘fog of war’ for second strike on ‘drug boat’
UK stops some intelligence sharing with US over ‘drug boat’ strikes
A video of the 2 September strike, which killed 11 people, has been shown to politicians, but accounts of its contents split along party lines.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said the survivors were “trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for United States back over so they could stay in the fight”.
Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth during a cabinet meeting at the White House on 2 December. Pic: Reuters
His party colleague, representative Rick Crawford of Arkansas, issued a statement saying the strikes were legal.
But representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said: “What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.
“You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel.”
They “were killed by the United States”, he said.
Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, echoed his account.
Democrat representative Adam Smith of Washington (L) leaving the briefing. Pic: AP
He said the survivors were “basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water – until the missiles come and kill them”.
Likewise, Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was “deeply disturbed” by the video, and called for it to be made public.
“This briefing confirmed my worst fears about the nature of the Trump Administration’s military activities,” he said in a statement.
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Even if the campaign against the suspected drug-trafficking boats had been authorised by Congress, ex-military lawyers said the strike against survivors would be a war crime if the military knowingly killed survivors.
Attacks on combatants who are incapacitated, unconscious or shipwrecked are forbidden by the defence department’s law of war manual – provided the survivors abstain from hostilities and do not attempt to escape.
Firing upon shipwreck survivors is cited as an example of a “clearly illegal” order that should be refused.
Which global leader has been the most frequent visitor to the Oval Office during Donald Trump’s first year back in power?
Not a head of state. But Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA.
The boss of world football’s governing body was back in the White House this week, and sport wasn’t even on the agenda.
And yet it still came back to football and today’s World Cup draw – even after the signing of a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mr Infantino was picked out in the audience as Mr Trump diverted from trumpeting ending another conflict to boasting about World Cup ticket sales.
Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino stand next to the FIFA Club World Cup trophy. Pic: Reuters
“A great leader in sports and a great gentleman,” the US president said.
So it’s certainly not just Mr Infantino dishing out the flattery. But there is plenty of that, aligning himself with the MAGA agenda going back into the first term.
“Together we will make not only America great again,” he said in January, “but also the entire world”.
There is often bemusement when Mr Infantino pops up wherever Mr Trump is – from a Saudi-backed financial conference in Miami to an official visit to Saudi Arabia and the Gaza peace summit in Egypt.
There isn’t a non-American with such prominent proximity to the presidency. And it’s being used to shortcut decision-making for the World Cup, with direct access to the most powerful man on Earth to help smooth the tournament’s delivery.
Mr Infantino knows how to chime with Mr Trump’s talking points, recently telling critics to lay off the president because he has a mandate from winning the 2024 election.
“We should all support what he is doing because I think he is doing pretty good,” Mr Infantino said.
Pic: AP
For a man who was largely known a decade ago for drawing balls for the Champions League, the ascent to the peak of power has been rapid and only made possible by scandals knocking out presumptive leaders.
It will be a draw on Friday that cements this unlikeliest of bonds when the World Cup schedule is determined at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
So much has been done to flatter Mr Trump, to pander to his passions.
The one thing he craves more than anything is a peace prize.
And after missing out on the foremost, illustrious Nobel version – despite an endorsement from Mr Infantino – FIFA created its own to hand out on Friday without any announced process for nominations or selection.
And if there is one song to indulge Mr Trump with it is the unlikely YMCA. The 1970s disco group Village People have been hired for the draw ceremony.
Expect the Trump dance. Expect the unexpected. Expect uneasy moments as Mr Trump takes centre stage alongside Mr Infantino.
How freewheeling will the presidential address become?
And is it all too political, even for a football organisation rarely untouched by politics?
Pic: AP
It has created awkward moments when Mr Trump has been disparaging towards Democrat-run cities attacked for not being safe.
“Gianni, can I say we will move (matches)?” Mr Trump asked on live TV in the Oval Office.
“I don’t think you’re going to have this problem. But we’re going to move the event to some place where it’s going to be appreciated and safe.”
Usually FIFA dismisses questions about moving World Cup venues this late on, but Mr Infantino responded in part: “Safety and security is the number one priority.”
Usually, FIFA would be working to ensure all fans can attend its tournament, but the governing body is not dissenting against the block on visitors from Iran and Haiti.
The rhetoric of Mr Trump – framed around security – collides with FIFA’s idealism about uniting the world through football, with everyone being welcome.
And this is not just about the US. For the first time this is a World Cup being co-hosted by three nations, even if Mr Infantino has paid more visits to just one of them.
Read more from Sky News:
88-year-old veteran given £1.2m to help him retire
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But the leaders of Canada and Mexico are due at the draw here in DC.
They’ll hope the football ceremony provides some respite from Mr Trump’s threats of a military strike on Mexico over drugs or deepening the trade war with Canada.
There is a peace prize to award, after all.
A celebration of all things Donald Trump.
And at some point, the teams will discover they will be drawn to play at the tournament next summer.
Because with Gianni Infantino it has to come back to football, the whole purpose of his role.
Even if his political alliances can seem more prominent than what happens on the pitch.
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