He added, “That is really upsetting. Because I don’t want it to stop.”
The singer, who’s known for his hits like “Copacabana,” “Mandy” and more throughout a career that has spanned more than 50 years, said he feels like he’s “taken my voice for granted.”
“I don’t take it seriously,” he said. “Now I do, because it doesn’t seem to be there the way it always was.”
Manilow’s cancer diagnosis was announced on Dec. 22, 2025, on his official website. The singer, who said he previously experienced six weeks of bronchitis, had just completed a Las Vegas residency and a five-night series of charity Christmas concerts in Palm Desert, California. He said his doctors ordered an MRI following his illness with bronchitis.
“They checked my lungs, and they found the dot, the spot, that thing that you don’t want to, you don’t want to ever have,” Manilow said. “They said I had lung cancer and we have to get it out.”
“It was just too heavy for me,” he added.
Manilow said the “spot” was diagnosed as Stage 1 cancerous tumor in his left lung, which he underwent successful surgery to remove. His doctors said he didn’t need chemotherapy or radiation, according to Manilow, but he contracted pneumonia, which landed him in the ICU.
Manilow said the experience was “terrifying.”
“There was a couple of moments there that I thought this may be goodbye,” he said. “But these people at this hospital, they were just angels, saints. I could cry so hard every time I think about these nurses and doctors.”
Today, ahead of his 83rd birthday on June 17, Manilow said he’s “doing good,” but that “it took longer than I thought it was going to take to get past this lung cancer.”
Earlier this year, Manilow’s song “Once Before I Go,” which he released in September 2025, reached the top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The song will appear on his new album, What a Time, which will be released Friday.
“I can’t wait to get back,” he continued. “I’m in great shape, I’m ready to go. I just hope my voice is there. If I sound good, that would be just great!”
“I really don’t want to cry onstage, but I don’t know whether I’ll be able to hold that back this time,” he added.
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