On this day, 12 Jan 2000, American singer/songwriter giant Barry Manilow, played the second and final night at Cardiff’s International Arena.
Billed as the Manilow Live - Manilow Millennium Tour.
Born, Barry Alan Pincus, June 17, 1943, his career has spanned more than 50 years with hit recordings that include "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "I Write the Songs", "Can't Smile Without You" and "Copacabana (At the Copa)".
He recorded and released 51 Top 40 singles on the Adult Contemporary Chart, including 13 that hit number one, 28 appeared within the top ten, and 36 in the top twenty. Manilow has released 13 platinum and six multi-platinum albums. Although not a favorite artist of music critics,Manilow has been praised by entertainers including Frank Sinatra, who was quoted in the 1970s as saying, "He's next." In 1988, Bob Dylan stopped Manilow at a party, hugged him and said, "Don't stop what you're doing, man. We're all inspired by you."
As well as producing and arranging albums for himself and other artists, Manilow has written and performed songs for musicals, films, and commercials for corporations such as McDonald's, Pepsi-Cola, and Band-Aid, from the 1960s. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award (winning once) as a producer, arranger and performer a total of fifteen times (and in every decade) from 1973 to 2015. He has also produced Grammy-nominated albums for Bette Midler, Dionne Warwick, Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughan. Manilow has sold more than 85 million records as a solo artist worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists.
Fans writing on one of the singer’s websites said of the evening :
Wow! The best show I've seen so far! The orchestra sounds great and "I Made It Through The Rain" was made perfect because of them. "Flight Of The Bumble Bee" was great too. This was the first time my mum had seen Barry live. She left the hall speechless! - Antony Guy Wainer (of England) (1/15/2000)
Barry is just so professional, and seems to get better every time I see him (If that's possible!). He seemed so confident and at ease, and the orchestra just added to an already perfect performance from Barry. He really excelled himself in this concert, and sang all the old favourites as well as a few new ones. Our seats were five rows from the front, right in the middle of the row, so I had a near perfect view of him. - Christine Summers (Aberystwyth, Wales) (1/18/2000)
