American singer Barry Manilow has said he studied artists such as Billie Eilish while working on his upcoming album, but found he could not write in the same style.<\/p>\n
The 82-year-old, known for hits including Mandy and I Wanna Do It With You, announced his 33rd studio album just weeks after being treated for lung cancer.<\/p>\n
The 13-track record, What A Time, is his first album in 15 years and is due for release in June. It includes a song co-written by Take That star Gary Barlow.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The Times, Manilow said: “The truth is that for this record I really studied what’s going on out there, artists like Billie Eilish.<\/p>\n
“I tried to write like her but I just couldn’t, because I\u2019m used to verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, ending, but pop music now just sounds like run-on sentences.<\/p>\n
“Where is the chorus? Hook? Song after song is like that, so I went back to what I know and people will either think I haven\u2019t listened to pop radio in 40 years or they\u2019ll say: ‘Thank God! Something to hang my ears on!\u2019”<\/p>\n
Eilish, 24, has won 10 Grammy Awards and is known for songs including Bad Guy, Birds Of A Feather and What Was I Made For? from the 2023 film Barbie.<\/p>\n
Manilow also said he feels songs are no longer written by what he called “bona fide musicians”.<\/p>\n
He said: “They feel written by young people, who know a couple of chords, and some new songs are really good, but the stars of pop nowadays are studio engineers, and the last thing you pay attention to in a modern record are the lyrics or melody.<\/p>\n
“The rhythm and grooves are delicious. But songwriters? I don\u2019t think they\u2019re there any more.”<\/p>\n
Following his diagnosis and treatment, the singer had to postpone a number of shows and said he is not yet “totally healed”.<\/p>\n
He said: “The doctors said that it would take a while, but I have no patience, and waiting is agony. For my voice to come back, for my breathing to come back\u2026 It\u2019s driving me nuts.<\/p>\n
“I tried to sing my show, but I have not been able to make it to the end without getting so winded that I have to stop.<\/p>\n
“I haven\u2019t been able to do 90 minutes yet. I am getting closer and the doctors say it will come back, but they say: ‘Barry, you\u2019ve been through hell. Ease up!\u2019 And I have never heard a doctor say that, so it must have been more difficult than I thought.”<\/p>\n
Manilow is due to tour the UK this summer, possibly for the last time, with dates scheduled in London, Glasgow, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool and Birmingham.<\/p>\n
He said: “By the time we are done with Britain we\u2019ve got a couple more shows, but then that will probably be it for me.”<\/p>\n
The singer began his career in the early 1960s and had his first hit with Mandy in 1975.<\/p>\n
He has sold more than 85 million records worldwide as a solo artist, has been nominated for 15 Grammy Awards and has won one.<\/p>\n
In 2023, he broke Elvis Presley\u2019s record of 636 performances in Las Vegas during his long-running residency at the Westgate resort and casino.<\/p>\n
Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American singer Barry Manilow has said he studied artists such as Billie Eilish while working on his upcoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-371684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}