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StumbleBarry Manilow promotes music education on CBS, wants Lady Gaga duet
Denise Truscello/WireImage
Barry Manilow at the Paris on March 6, 2010.
Monday, Nov. 1, 2010 | 10:20 p.m.
Barry Manilow at the Paris on March 6, 2010.
Las Vegas Strip performer Barry Manilow stopped by CBS’s “The Talk” Monday to talk music education, parenthood, his new album and Lady Gaga.
The afternoon talk show’s cameras last month followed Manilow to Valley High School, where the crooner announced his Manilow Music Project would be donating about $500,000 worth of instruments and other equipment to public schools in the Las Vegas Valley.
Manilow received a standing ovation from “The Talk” hosts Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Leah Remini and Sara Gilbert -- as well as his “fanilows” in the audience -- for his contribution to music and art education.
The Strip performer stressed the importance of music education in public schools and noted how it changed his life.
“When I was growing up in Brooklyn, I went to a really dump of a high school, but at least they had an orchestra,” Manilow said. “If I didn’t have that band class, I really wouldn’t be here. I wasn’t very good at sports and I wasn’t going to join a gang, so I joined the orchestra and it really changed my life.”
Las Vegas parents praised Manilow during the video clip of his donation, calling the singer an “angel.”
“What I’ve learned is it is not just play time,” Manilow said of music class. “These kids that stay in music class, their grades go up, their social skills go up. When they stop these music classes, forget it; they are on their own if they want to become a musician.”
Gilbert then posed a sensitive question to Manilow, asking why he does so much work with children, but chose not to have any of his own.
“I thought it would either be the career or the family. I couldn’t do both. I knew I would be a rotten parent if I kept being on the road, making records, not being home … you hear about it all the time. I made that choice,” Manilow said.
Through the years, Manilow has done duets with dozens of artists, including Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand and former Strip performer Better Midler, but still has a wish list of future duets.
“Lady Gaga,” Manilow said when asked for one in particular. “I love her.”
Speaking of “Fame Monsters,” Manilow said he is in the process of recording a new album called “Fifteen Minutes,” which he said will focus on what fame does to young entertainers. Manilow said the album will be out in January or February.
For now, fans will have to settle for Manilow’s show at Paris Las Vegas, where he performers several times a month.
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i hope barry or someone in his camp reads this,sir,ive seen your show twice at paris,i'd like to go again,would u please perform"i was a fool'.its my all time favorite manilow song
So Barry is promoting music education in the schools. I believe that this whole promotion was a public announcement service on KVSV in Beloit, Kansas and has been picked up by the big stars that those students who do not excel in all the subjects because the teachers are lax in their teaching or have a lot of personal fu fu on their plates instead of teaching in the classroom may excel in music if they do not have their musical intruments stolen from then or the male teachers do not bully the younger male students which often occurs and the student is too embarrassed to complain to the principal who has the same attitude as the whole school anyway in bullying and intimidation and besides with the musical instruments out of the way, in the future you know that something big will happen and the rightful owner will be left with the scares from the bullying received from the school he attended while in grade school. Nothing impecable here, not even the stars who don't have the courage to say let's let the person who needs to say something about this have the time to say that that needs to be said instead of us.
My house is a public house.
It is nice to see a celebrity with something other than their personal interests out in front. Mr Manilow has the right idea, showing the importance of ALL forms of educational oportunities for our youth. Thank You Mr Manilow for your support and may you continue with this very worthy endeavour for many years to come.