Barry Manilow will not be taking the stage this month. The 82-year-old singer postponed all of his April 2026 arena concerts on doctor’s orders, an email sent to fans and ticket holders on Wednesday April 8 confirmed.
No new dates have been announced yet. All existing tickets will be honored for the rescheduled shows.
The email stated that “the Manilow arena concert performances scheduled for April will now be rescheduled to a later date due to doctor’s orders,” adding, “We know this is not the news you were expecting, especially with the shows so close, but we truly appreciate your understanding. We will update you as soon as the rescheduled dates become available.”
Among the affected shows is the Portland, Maine date, billed as “The Last Portland Concert,” which had been scheduled for April 19 at Cross Insurance Arena.
It is now postponed with no replacement date confirmed. The same applies to ten other cities across the Northeast and Southeast.
Every April Show That Has Been Postponed
The complete list of affected April dates is extensive. UBS Arena in Elmont, New York was set for April 13, advertised as “The Last Long Island Concert.” The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey was April 14.
Mohegan Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania was April 16. Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania was April 17.
Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine was April 19. MVP Arena in Albany, New York was April 20. KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York was April 22.
First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina was April 24. VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida was April 27. Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia was April 29.
All ten shows are now postponed with no rescheduled dates announced. Ticket holders have been told their tickets will carry forward to whatever the new dates turn out to be.
What Has Been Happening With His Health
These April postponements are the third round of schedule disruptions Manilow has had to make since late 2025, and understanding why requires going back to where this started.
In November and December 2025, after six weeks of bronchitis followed by a five-week relapse, Manilow had a precautionary MRI scan.
The scan found a cancerous spot on his left lung. He described the discovery as “pure luck,” the scan was not specifically looking for cancer, and had it not been ordered, the spot might not have been caught when it was.
The diagnosis was Stage 1 lung cancer. His doctors told him it had not spread, that he would not need chemotherapy or radiation, and that recovery after surgery would take approximately a month.
He completed a series of Christmas concerts, then postponed his January 2026 arena dates to have the surgery.
The surgery, described as a lobectomy, the removal of one lobe of his lung, was performed and declared successful.
He returned to social media with updates indicating he was recovering and feeling better. He planned to resume the tour in time for Valentine’s week shows at his Las Vegas residency.
Those shows were also cancelled as his recovery continued to lag behind expectations.
On February 20, 2026, Manilow posted to social media sharing what he called “very depressing” news from his surgeon.
The doctor had told him his lungs were not ready for a 90-minute arena show.
He quoted the conversation:
“Barry, you won’t be ready to do a 90-minute show. Your lungs aren’t ready yet. You’re in great shape considering what you’ve been through, but your body isn’t ready. You shouldn’t do the first Arena shows. You won’t make it through.”
Manilow wrote in response, “Deep down, I wanted to go back, but my body knew what my heart didn’t want to admit: I wasn’t ready.”
That February postponement covered shows from February 27 through March 17, the second round of cancellations.
In a February 23 announcement, Manilow provided rescheduled dates for some of those shows, moving them to July and August 2026.
Others, particularly the Florida dates including Tampa, Orlando, Sunrise, and Estero, were left without new dates.
The April shows that are now postponed were themselves already the rescheduled versions of the original January dates.
They had been shifted once in anticipation of a recovery that has taken longer than his doctors initially expected.
What Has Barry Manilow Said About Coming Back?
In a People magazine interview in late March, Manilow explained the specific physical challenge he is facing as he works to return to performing.
Removing a lobe of his lung has changed the way he breathes, and relearning that breathing in the context of full-energy performing is not something that can be rushed.
“I have to learn how to breathe again,” he said. “The shows I do are full of energy, and unless you’re in top-notch shape, you can’t make it through 90 minutes without this one lobe.”
He described using a treadmill three times a day as part of his rehabilitation and said he was still unable to sing more than three songs in a row before needing to stop.
He framed his determination in practical terms. “I have to get on that treadmill because I don’t want to throw it away. I want to know that if I can’t do it, I did everything I could to go back on the road.”
He had earlier written in his February social media post that his doctor told him his body had been through hell and needed time to heal. As of March 2026, Manilow is described as cancer-free.
What Is Manilow’s Farewell Tour?
The farewell tour is titled “The Last Concerts” and is billed as Manilow’s final US arena run, marking the end of a performance career spanning more than six decades.
Each city’s show carries a specific version of that billing, “The Last Portland Concert,” “The Last Long Island Concert,” framing each date as a genuine goodbye to that market’s audience rather than a standard tour stop.
The tour had already been preceded by his final UK dates, including a residency at the London Palladium in 2025.
When announcing those shows, Manilow said:
“In 1978, The London Palladium is where I began my love affair with the British public. These shows will be my last full concerts in Britain and I wanted to end where I began.”
The Las Vegas residency at the International Theater at Westgate Las Vegas, running from May 7 through December 19, 2026, remains on the schedule and is not affected by the postponements. A UK tour is also still planned for summer 2026.
Manilow has also announced that a new studio album titled “What a Time” is forthcoming, his 33rd studio album and his first in fifteen years.
Who Is Barry Manilow?
Barry Manilow was born June 17, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York. He was named the number one Adult Contemporary artist of all time by Billboard magazine, and has sold more than 85 million albums across a career that produced 51 Top 40 singles, including 13 number ones and 28 top 10 hits.
He is a Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Award winner, a BMI Icon Award recipient, and a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee.
His most recognisable songs include Mandy, Copacabana, I Write the Songs, Can’t Smile Without You, and Looks Like We Made It.
His long-running Las Vegas residency has been cited among the city’s most successful, and his record-breaking appearances at Radio City Music Hall placed him among the venue’s all-time most significant performers.
His original Broadway musical Harmony was named a 2023 New York Times Critic’s Pick.
At each concert on the farewell tour, Manilow had planned to honour local music educators through the Manilow Music Teacher Award, a program through his Manilow Music Project, which has donated instruments and resources to schools across the country.
The selected teacher receives $10,000, split between a cash prize and funds for classroom instruments.
