Lady Gaga pays tribute to Tony Bennett as she resumes Vegas residency

Lady Gaga took a moment to honour the late Tony Bennett as she resumed her Las Vegas residency.

• READ MORE: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga – ‘Love For Sale’ review: playful oldies covers with a playful wink

The pair recorded two covers albums together, 2014’s ‘Cheek To Cheek’ and 2021’s ‘Love For Sale’, before Bennett passed away aged 96 in July after living with Alzheimer’s disease.

In her first ‘Jazz And Piano’ show since his death, Gaga dedicated a song to his widow Susan Benedetto, who was thought to have been in the audience.

“Susan, everybody in this audience loves you so much,” she began.

“The truth is I didn’t know exactly what to say about Tony because this whole show was for Tony, everything. The opening number, the middle number, all the diamonds, all the musical instruments, all the conducting, all the improvisation was in his memory.”

She then shared how she thought Bennett would have wanted her to carry on after his death. Before performing ‘Fly Me To The Moon’, she said: “But if I know Tony well, I know he would be real mad at me for being sad, so I couldn’t come out here and be sad. I sung this song while Tony was still alive, and I’m going to sing it now even though he’s gone, because he’ll never be gone.”

Gaga had previously vowed to keep “celebrating” the legendary entertainer. Posting on Instagram on what would have been Bennett’s 97th birthday, she wrote: “”Happy Birthday Tony. August 3rd is Tony Bennett Day. A day for smiling. But I’ll be celebrating you a lot more than once a year.

“I’ll celebrate you every time I’m on stage singing jazz music, every time I’m with your family, every time I walk down the streets of New York I’ll look around and remember all you did for this city and the whole world.”

The post Lady Gaga pays tribute to Tony Bennett as she resumes Vegas residency appeared first on NME.