Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto, known professionally by his stage name Tony Bennett, is an American singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. He is also a painter, having created works under the name Anthony Benedetto that are on permanent public display in several institutions. He is the founder of the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens, New York...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth3 August 1926
CityQueens, NY
CountryUnited States of America
That song helped make me a world citizen. It allowed me to live, work and sing in any city on the globe. It changed my whole life.
The young people look great on television. They’re youthful and have a lot of zip and energy, but when you see them live, they can only do about 20 minutes because they haven’t got the training to hold an audience for an hour and a half or so.
More than anybody else I’d like to thank Count Basie for teaching me how to perform.
Intimate singing had a wonderful style in the '30s and '40s. It came out of Broadway and the jazz of Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. But Sinatra created the best romantic era that we've ever had.
Every city I go to is an opportunity to paint, whether it's Omaha or Hawaii.
I think there's an opportunity for a couple of them for sure, maybe more depending upon the situation, but it's too early to say which ones. It's a pretty competitive fight. And that doesn't mean the older guys are just going to walk into spots. I remind them all the time - you got to earn everything you get. And that's what made our team good last year, is guys really competed for opportunities and understood their roles.
I attended the High School of Industrial Arts and studied with many great artists as painting is something that you never stop learning about. Actually, in high school there was a time that I was thinking about just concentrating on painting and I asked my music teacher, Mr. Sondberg, for advice and he encouraged me to stick with the music as well. So all my life I have been singing and painting.
I have been very fortunate to have been able to make a living from what I love to do best - performing and singing for people.
I'd like to have every gentleman and lady in this room commit themselves to get our government to legalize drugs, so they have to get it through a doctor, not just some gangsters who sell it under the table. Let's legalize drugs like they did in Amsterdam. No one's hiding or sneaking around corners to get it. They go to a doctor to get it.
I've been so fortunate because I never really had ups and downs as far as my career. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I've been sold out all over the world.
It helps to know there is going to be continuity.
No-one will ever sound as good as Judy Garland as far as I am concerned.
The biggest message I've given our team, and I think it's really important, is first of all, no one can take away what happened last year. It's obviously a fun year, a terrific year. But I think a big mistake would be to try to compare themselves or ourselves to last year's team. I think the key really is, and I told them this: for you as a group, you're a different team.
I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world.