Lady Gaga Gives Touching Tribute to Tony Bennett, Who Passed at 96

Lady Gaga is reflecting on the death of legendary singer and close friend Tony Bennett. 

On Monday, she gave a touching tribute on Instagram, reflecting on their friendship, describing his optimism and how he actively worked to make the world a better place, and thanking him for all he taught her.

"I will miss my friend forever. I will miss singing with him, recording with him, talking with him, being on stage together," she wrote. "With Tony, I got to live my life in a time warp. Tony & I had this magical power. We transported ourselves to another era, modernized the music together, & gave it all new life as a singing duo. But it wasn't an act. Our relationship was very real. Sure he taught me about music, about showbiz life, but he also showed me how to keep my spirits high and my head screwed on straight."

She continued, "'Straight ahead,' he'd say. He was an optimist, he believed in quality work AND quality life. Plus, there was the gratitude...Tony was always grateful. He served in WWII, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and sang jazz with the greatest singers and players in the world.
I've been grieving the loss of Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye."

She noted that despite their age difference Bennet was a "real true friend" and losing him "to Alzheimer’s has been painful but it was also really beautiful."

"An era of memory loss is such a sacred time in a person's life," the caption read. "There's such a feeling of vulnerability and a desire to preserve dignity. All I wanted was for Tony to remember how much I loved him and how grateful I was to have him in my life. But, as that faded slowly I knew deep down he was sharing with me the most vulnerable moment in his life that he could--being willing to sing with me when his nature was changing so deeply. I'll never forget this experience. I'll never forget Tony Bennett."

She gives a lasting message to her audience stating that you should not "discount your elders" and not to "leave them behind when things change."

"Don’t flinch when you feel sad, just keep going straight ahead, sadness is part of it. Take care of your elders and I promise you will learn something special. Maybe even magical. And pay attention to silence—some of my musical partner and I’s most meaningful exchanges were with no melody at all," she wrote.

Gaga and Bennett were longtime collaborators, with their first collaboration in 2011 performing a cover of "The Lady Is a Tramp" on Bennett's album Duets II. In 2014, the two released their first full collaborative album Cheek to Cheek, followed by a performance together at the 2015 Grammy Awards. Their last live duet was in 2021 when they performed a concert in New York titled, "One Last Time: An Evening With Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga."

That same year of 2021, Bennett's family came forward publicly that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and has been battling the disease since 2016. He passed away on July 21, 2023. When speaking with Variety, Bennett's son Danny Bennett revealed that a documentary called "The Lady and the Legend" will be released in September following the 10-year friendship of Gaga and Bennett.