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“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
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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.

Singer Tony Bennett performs during the Clinton Global Citizen award ceremony at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York, September 27, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

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.

Singer and artist Tony Bennett poses for a portrait before an opening of his art exhibition in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S. May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

‘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.

Singer Tony Bennett is shown singing on June 23, 1960
Pic:AP
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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.

Ella Fitzgerald sings a duet with Tony Bennett in 1990
Pic:AP
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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.

Ray Charles, left, and Tony Bennett are shown at the Larabee Studios in Los Angeles Jan. 4, 1986
Pic:AP
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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.

Tony Bennett is joined by Stevie Wonder as he accepts the century award at the Billboard Music Awards in 2006

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.

Singer Tony Bennett poses for photographers with his Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for "Playin' With My Friends: Bennett Sings The Blues," at the 45th annual Grammy Awards at New York's Madison Square Garden, February 23, 2003. REUTERS/Peter Morgan MS/HB

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.

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Putin-Trump Budapest meeting in doubt as official says ‘no plan for immediate future’

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Putin-Trump Budapest meeting in doubt as official says 'no plan for immediate future'

There are no plans for Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to meet in person in the near future, according to a White House official.

The US leader later shed further light on the issue when asked why his planned summit in Hungary had been put on hold.

He said he did not want to have a wasted meeting, telling reporters in the Oval Office he had not made a determination about the talks he had wanted to hold.

The presidents last week agreed to meet in Budapest after a phone call Mr Trump called “extremely frank and trustful”.

The US leader suggested it was possible it could happen within a fortnight, though no date was set.

However, it appears that’s now off the table – and there are fears the meeting could be shelved altogether due to Russia‘s rigid stance on the Ukraine war.

The White House official, speaking to Sky’s US partner network NBC, said secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had spoken on Tuesday.

The call was described as “productive” but the official added there was no plan for the presidents to meet “in the immediate future”.

The last Trump-Putin meeting was in Alaska in August, but it ended without any meaningful progress towards a ceasefire.

The Budapest plan was announced shortly before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington last Friday to try to get approval for long-range Tomahawk missiles.

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Why Tomahawks are off the table

Mr Zelenskyy accused the Russian leader of acting out of fear Ukraine could get the green light and the ability to hit targets far deeper into Russia.

In his nightly address on Tuesday, he said Russia “almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy” after it became clear Mr Trump had backed away from any decision on the Tomahawks.

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Professor Michael Clarke answers your questions on the Ukraine war.

Two US officials told Reuters that plans for the Budapest meeting had stalled over Russia’s insistence any peace deal must give it control of all of the Donbas region.

Those terms are said to have been reiterated over the weekend in a private communique known as a “no paper”.

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The Kremlin’s refusal to budge effectively rejects Mr Trump’s latest assessment that the frontlines should be frozen as they are.

The president shifted position last week after previously telling the UN General Assembly that Ukraine could win back all the land it has lost.

Read more:
Putin’s ‘not so secret weapon’ | Ukraine war Q&A
UK ‘ready to spend over £100m’ on possibly sending troops to Ukraine

Ukraine and European nations issued a joint statement on Tuesday insisting “international borders must not be changed by force” and accusing Russia of “stalling tactics”.

But, in an apparent effort to keep the US leader onside, it added: “We strongly support President Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations.”

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Trump: ‘We can end this war quickly’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov gave the impression his country was in no rush to arrange another Trump-Putin meeting, saying on Tuesday “preparation is needed, serious preparation”.

Such talk is likely to increase concerns Russia does not want to stop fighting and is “playing” President Trump – all while continuing to launch drone barrages at Ukrainian cities.

Russia currently holds about a fifth of Ukraine after its invasion in February in 2022. It also annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

Meanwhile, NATO’s secretary general Mark Rutte is travelling to Washington to meet with President Trump on Wednesday.

He will “discuss various aspects related to NATO’s support to Ukraine and to the US-led efforts towards lasting peace”, an official for the alliance said.

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Why is Trump and Putin’s meeting off?

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Why is Trump and Putin's meeting off?

With Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s meeting in Budapest “on hold” for now, US correspondents Martha Kelner and Mark Stone unpick the US president’s latest position on the war in Ukraine.

Martha also chats to Huffington Post journalist SV Dáte about his run-in with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

Email us on trump100@sky.uk with your comments and questions.

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America takes centre stage in show of diplomatic power in Israel

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America takes centre stage in show of diplomatic power in Israel

As shows of diplomatic power go, this was a pretty good one. Here, in an industrial complex in the south of Israel that is rapidly being repurposed into a joint operations centre, America is taking centre stage.

A group walks in. At the centre is US Vice President JD Vance, flanked by omni-envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s unofficial emissary to the Middle East and official son-in-law.

And as if to prove just how much heft there is on show, the fourth person to walk in is Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the US’s Central Command, in charge of a bewildering number of troops and the most powerful foreign military leader in the Middle East. But in this company, he barely said a word.

JD Vance. Pic: Reuters
Image:
JD Vance. Pic: Reuters

Mr Vance was composed, enthusiastic and conciliatory. During our drive down to the complex, near the town of Kirya Gat, we had read the latest statement from Donald Trump, released on the social media platform that he owns, threatening swingeing repercussions against Hamas. “FAST, FURIOUS AND BRUTAL,” he had written.

So often the echo of the president’s words, Mr Vance struck a more nuanced tone. Yes, he said that Hamas could end up being “obliterated”, but he also offered the group some support. Since the ceasefire was signed, Hamas has repeatedly said that it cannot easily recover the bodies of all the dead hostages. Mr Vance agrees.

“This is difficult. This is not going to happen overnight,” he said. “Some of these hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble. Some of the hostages, nobody even knows where they are.”

He said it would have been unwise to set a deadline, insisting “we’ve got to be a little bit flexible” and even accused Israel, along with Gulf Arab states, of “a certain amount of impatience with Hamas”.

(L-R) JD Vance, US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner. Pic: Reuters
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(L-R) JD Vance, US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner. Pic: Reuters

I asked him if his visit was as a direct result of Israel’s actions on Sunday, responding to the deaths of two soldiers with attacks that killed dozens of Palestinians.

No, said Mr Vance, it had “nothing to do with events in the past 48 hours”. Many will remain dubious – this is his first visit to Israel as vice president, and, if the timing really was coincidental, it was very fortuitous.

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Ceasefire in fragile state

Then I asked him about the future of Gaza, about whether there really could be no safeguards that Palestinians would have a significant role in the future of the enclave.

I didn’t expect a long answer – and I certainly didn’t expect him to start by saying “I don’t know the answer to that question” – but that’s what we got.

“I think that what is so cool, what’s so amazing about what these guys have done, is that we’re creating a governance structure that is very flexible to what happens on the ground in the future. We need to reconstitute Gaza. We need to reconstruct Gaza,” he said.

“We need to make sure that both the Palestinians living in Gaza but also the Israelis are able to live in some measure of security and stability. We’re doing all of those things simultaneously. And then I think once we’ve got to a point where both the Gazans and our Israeli friends can have some measure of security, then we’ll worry about what the long-term governance of Gaza is.”

Read more:
British troops deployed to Israel to ‘monitor Gaza ceasefire’
‘Heavy force’ could enter Gaza, says Trump

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Trump says ceasefire still in place

While the words are different, and the tone is less didactic, the theme is familiar. The short-term gain is peace, while the long-term plan remains largely unaddressed and unformulated.

Work is being done on that front. Diplomatic sources tell me that the effort behind the scenes is now frenetic and wide-ranging, encompassing countries from across the region, but also way beyond.

But the questions they face are towering – who pays, who sets the rules, who enforces law, whose soldiers are the peacekeepers and what happens to all the displaced Gazans?

None of this will be easy.

Mr Vance, like Mr Trump, exudes confidence, and it has clearly inspired other leaders and their nations.

Few can doubt that Mr Trump’s iron-clad self-confidence has given life and momentum to this deal.

But that isn’t enough.

The diplomats, planners and, yes, the politicians have a lot to do.

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