Barry Manilow has been open about his long history with cigarettes.
“I smoked for 30 years. I started when I was 9 years old,” the “Copacabana” singer told The Standard in 2012, revealing that he later quit before starting the habit again. Manilow eventually shifted to vaping.
In December 2025, Manilow announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, for which cigarette smoking is the No. 1 risk factor, according to the CDC.
“As many of you know, I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks. Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK,” he wrote in a statement shared via Instagram. “The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed. It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that it was found so early.”
Manilow added that he will have the “spot” removed now that the Christmas dates for his A Gift of Love concert series have concluded.
“The doctors do not believe it has spread, and I’m taking tests to confirm their diagnosis. So, that’s it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and I Love Lucy reruns,” he continued, adding that he would need “a month to recover” after the surgery and therefore would need to reschedule his January 2026 tour dates.
Amid Manilow’s cancer battle, keep scrolling to see everything he’s said about smoking through the years:
Barry Manilow Began Smoking at 9 Years Old
Manilow’s journey with cigarettes began at a young age while growing up in New York.
“Well, I smoked for 30 years. I started when I was 9 years old. I grew up in Brooklyn,” he told The Evening Standard.
Manilow continued, “Then I stopped about 15, 20 years ago. Then I just started in Las Vegas and the band and I went down to a little club and somebody offered me a cigarette. And I was back. Within a week I was back. Not on a pack a day, cause when I was really smoking I was on three packs a day — non filters. Oh yeah. I was a great smoker.”
Barry Manilow Began Vaping as an Alternative to Smoking
In his interview with The Standard, Manilow revealed that he ultimately traded in his cigarettes for a vape, which is a device that simulates tobacco smoking. Instead of smoke, the user inhales vapor. Vapes are often used as an effective tool to help users quit smoking cigarettes.
“Do they work? They do for me, my band and my crew, all of us who hated smoking but couldn’t stop,” Manilow said of vaping.
Manilow was spotted with his vape pen during a rare outing in Palm Springs, California, on December 17, 2025, just days before he announced his cancer diagnosis, as seen in photos published by the Daily Mail.
While vaping is widely considered to be less harmful than cigarette smoking, it can still cause inflammation and irritation in the lungs, leading to lung damage, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Barry Manilow Says He’s ‘Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop’ After Multiple Health Issues
Prior to his lung cancer battle, Manilow dealt with bronchial pneumonia, a mouth tumor, heart problems and hip surgery. Additionally, in 2020, he was diagnosed with throat cancer, which was caught and treated early.
“I’m fine, I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m very old, I should not be able to do this,” he told the Daily Mirror in 2019. “You saw me going up those stairs on stage — there’s 14 steps up and 14 down, you would think I should be in a wheelchair or something.”
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