30 January 2024
Retro pop star Barry Manilow will return to Xcel Energy Center on Aug. 2 to perform what’s being dubbed The Final St. Paul Concert.
But wait, didn’t he already do a farewell tour? Indeed, he did. He played the X in April 2016 on a tour he called One Last Time! And it turns out he continued to perform live anyway and has played as many as 80 shows a year ever since, including 2020, when he was in the midst of a Las Vegas residency that was cut short due to the pandemic.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Ticketmaster. Neither the promoter nor the venue announced prices, although back in 2016, tickets started at $19.75. Manilow is selling platinum packages, which include front row seats and a photo with him, to paid members of his fan club. See barrymanilow.com for details.
Manilow, who will be 81 by the time he hits St. Paul, began his career writing advertising jingles for the likes of State Farm Insurance, Band-Aid, Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s. In the early ’70s, he famously played piano for Bette Midler at the Continental Baths in New York and produced her first two albums.
Barry Manilow waves to the fans in the upper seats as he performs at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Thursday, April 7, 2016. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
While his 1973 self-titled solo debut found only modest success, Manilow’s single “Mandy” topped the charts the following year. He went on to rule that decade with “Could it Be Magic,” “I Write the Songs,” “Daybreak,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” “Ready to Take a Chance Again” and “Copacabana (At the Copa).”
By the ’80s, pop radio had moved on from Manilow, although he continued to record and tour. He drew a crowd of about 8,000 to the X in 2016 when he performed a brisk 85-minute show that had fans filing out the door before 10 p.m.
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