American jazz singer Tony Bennett, 94, revealed on Monday (February 1) that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease as long as four years ago.

Taking to social media, the man with the golden voice wrote: “Life is a gift – even with Alzheimer’s. Thank you Susan (his wife Susan Crow, 54) and my family for their support, and AARP, the magazine for telling my story.”

Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. In most people with the disease – those with the late-onset type…symptoms first appear in their mid-sixties.

Scientists don’t yet fully understand what causes Alzheimer’s in most people. The causes probably include a combination of age-related changes in the brain, along with genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors.

Tony Bennett, along with Frank Sinatra, popularised the dapper crooner persona in media and concert halls, performing for many decades. Born in 1926 in Queen, New York, Bennett has been nominated for 36 Grammy Awards, winning 18 and receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award. During World War II, he fought in France and Germany and helped in liberating a concentration camp.

Bennett was discovered by Bob Hope and signed to Columbia Records in 1950. In 1963 he first performed his classic, I left my Heart in San Francisco.

In 1965 he marched with Dr Martin Luther King in Selma for voting rights.

In more recent times he has performed with the late Amy Winehouse and put out an album with Lady Gaga called Cheek to Cheek. Bennett is one of the hardest working talents in show business with his last performance being in March 2020, at the Count Basie Centre for the Arts in New Jersey.

Bennett is being encouraged to keep singing and performing by his neurologists as long as he can do so.

“One of the cruellest aspects of dementia is the stigma that surrounds it. Feelings of hopelessness can cause people to resist getting diagnosed or refuse treatment. Although there is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, there is a lot that people can do to delay symptoms and improve quality of life,” said AARP’s senior vice president for brain health, Sarah Lock.

The article on Tony Bennett’s condition, written by John Colapinto describes the effect of the disease on the music legend but how the art of performing never leaves him.

“Both Susan (wife) and Danny (son) said that backstage, Tony could seem utterly mystified about his whereabouts. But the moment he heard the announcer’s voice boom ‘Ladies and Gentlemen – Tony Bennett!” he would transform himself into performance mode, stride out into the spotlight, smiling acknowledging the audience applause.”