{"id":31623,"date":"2021-08-06T20:15:31","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T20:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=31623"},"modified":"2021-08-06T20:15:31","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T20:15:31","slug":"lady-gaga-tony-bennett-radio-city-music-hall","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/lady-gaga-tony-bennett-radio-city-music-hall\/","title":{"rendered":"A ‘Magical’ New York Night With Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tony
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga (Photo by Monty Brinton\/CBS via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This week, Lady Gaga<\/a> and Tony Bennett reunited to play a pair of shows at New York\u2019s Radio City Music Hall. The two-night stand marked Bennett\u2019s 95th birthday\u2014and what is likely his final onstage performance. The legendary singer was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s in 2016, and the Radio City concerts were billed as the \u201clast NYC performances of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bennett is going out in style. He and Gaga are releasing their second album<\/a> of jazz standards in October, and according those who saw them, this week\u2019s performances were \u201cmagical.\u201d Press was banned from both gigs and fans had to surrender their phones at the door. Luckily, my buddy Robert, a Manhattan-based musician, was one of those lucky enough to score a ticket. He was at Radio City for the final of the two nights, so of course I had to pump him for the details.<\/p>\n

So, how was the show? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Magical. People have asked me all day how the show was, and it was like\u2026magic! My four sentence review has been: Lady Gaga was on point, at the height of her power, relaxed and fun and sounded amazing. The room was\u2026everybody was there to party. The highlight for me was that she sang \u201cNew York, New York\u201d right before Tony Bennett came out in, like, a top hat. And the crowd was singing along and there were spotlights going around. It was like, Oh, this is why I pay all this money to live in New York City. <\/em>I get to go do this on a Thursday night.<\/p>\n

What was the ratio of Gaga to Bennett?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was mainly Lady Gaga\u2014you know, they took our phones away and locked them away like Madonna. So, it was hard to have any sense of time. But she performed for what felt like over an hour. And she actually made a joke, she was like, \u201cI know you\u2019re wondering where Tony Bennett is and you\u2019ve been wondering that for the last 30 minutes\u2026\u201d And then she sang the last song and Tony came out. He actually did, like, eight songs that were shortened versions of his songs. And then they did a couple duets at the end\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Was it all standards or did Gaga do jazz versions of her songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

All standards. She didn\u2019t do any Gaga numbers that had been jazz-ified. They were all American Songbook. But she brings her point of view to all of her interpretations of the American Songbook. It\u2019s very much Lady Gaga singing jazz standards with an unbelievable orchestra jazz band.<\/p>\n