The iconic Tony Bennett was not only a star in the jazz and pop worlds, but one in his hometown of New York City, where he left his heart! Born Anthony Dominic Benedetto from Astoria, he always saved his greatest love for NYC.
Born to Italian immigrant parents – his father was a grocer, his mother a seamstress. Raised in poverty, he began singing as a child, and studied music and his other lifelong love, painting, at New York’s High School of Industrial Art. His vocal influences included Al Jolson, Bing Crosby and, later, Frank Sinatra, as well as such female singers as Billie Holiday and Judy Garland. Sinatra called him the greatest popular singer in the world.
Bennett was one of the world’s greatest singers, aside from being humble, gracious, loyal and generous. Present and former Mayors of this city only had wonderful words of praise and remembrances.
Winner of 18 Grammy Awards (with 36 total nominations), and a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 2001, Bennett also garnered two Emmy Awards. He was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2005 and a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2006.
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, he had continued to perform and record through 2021.
He is survived by his wife Susan Benedetto, his two sons, Danny and Dae Bennett, his daughters Johanna Bennett and Antonia Bennett, and nine grandchildren.
R.I.P.
