Everything He’s Said About His Cancer Diagnosis

Barry Manilow is facing a new health challenge.

The Grammy winner rose to fame through the ’70s and ’80s with his chart-topping hits like “Mandy” and “Copacabana.” All these years later, Manilow — who has been open about previous health struggles, including a heart condition — told PEOPLE in April 2023 that continuing to perform keeps him “vibrant.”

“I mean, I’m just one of the lucky guys that always has something,” he said. “I think by keeping working, you stay young, or at least you stay vibrant and your brain is always working. And that’s me — I’ve always got something going on.”

Now, the singer-songwriter’s farewell tour — dubbed The Last Concerts Series — is being interrupted after a “cancerous spot” was found on his left lung. Manilow announced in a Facebook post on Dec. 22 that he needed to reschedule some of the dates to undergo surgery and have it removed.

“It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early,” he wrote. “That’s the good news.”

From his heart condition to his cancerous spot, here’s everything Barry Manilow has said about his health.

Manilow has been living with a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation

Manilow has been open about his health struggles for years, including revealing in 2011 that he lives with a heart condition called atrial fibrillation.

Also known as A-fib, the condition is an irregular heart rhythm that begins in your heart’s upper chambers, per Cleveland Clinic.

At the time, Manilow explained that he felt his heart “skip a beat” while driving home one day, per CBS News.

“Well, your heart skipping a beat doesn’t sound like it’s anything serious, so I didn’t pay much attention to it. And then it went blump-bla-bla-blump,” Manilow said. “And it got crazier and crazier, I felt like there was a fish flopping around in my chest.”

He told Today’s Caregiver in June 2017 that he takes medication for the condition, which doesn’t stop him “from living [his] life.”

“Most of the time, the medication does its job and pulls it all back together again. But sometimes even that does not work,” he said, adding that, thankfully, he hasn’t had any “episodes” while onstage.

He previously said he won’t “throw in the towel” until he can no longer hit the “F natural” on “Even Now”

During a June 2025 conversation with Billboard, Manilow reflected on his decades-long career and his ’70s-’80s musical peers.

“It’s like, ‘What? Am I the only one left?’ ” he told the outlet. “It’s Billy Joel, and Elton [John] is not well and Rod [Stewart] and Neil [Diamond]. Diana Ross is still in great shape, I think.”

Speaking of his own health, Manilow said he was “still healthy” and joked he wouldn’t stop performing until he could no longer sing his 1978 hit song “Even Now” the way it is intended.

“There must be only a handful of people in my world that are still there. I’m still healthy. I’m strong and I’ve still got my voice and my energy,” he said. “The night I can’t hit the F natural on ‘Even Now,’ that’s the night I throw in the towel. But I can still do it.”

He was diagnosed with cancer after several weeks with bronchitis

In his Dec. 22 statement, Manilow shared that a cancerous spot was found on his left lung after a weeks-long battle with bronchitis.

“As many of you know I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” Manilow said. “Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI to make sure that everything was OK.”

The singer explained that the MRI discovered a “cancerous spot” on his left lung that needs to be removed.

Notably, Manilow had to cancel his opening weekend of his Las Vegas residency in June 2018 when he was hospitalized with a bronchial infection.

Manilow will have surgery to remove the cancerous spot

After sharing the “good news,” Manilow noted that the “bad news” is he has to have surgery to remove the cancerous spot.

“The doctors do not believe it was spread and I’m taking tests to confirm their diagnosis. So, that’s it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and I Love Lucy reruns,” he said in his statement.

He feels “great” and has “no symptoms”

After sharing the news of his diagnosis, Manilow shared in a statement obtained by PEOPLE that he was feeling “great” and had “no symptoms,” noting that the cancerous tumor is stage one.

“I’m thankful that my doctors were proactive and ran tests that typically wouldn’t be done,” he continued. “They caught it very, very early.”