Tony Bennett was “singing at his piano” simply days earlier than he died, his representatives have revealed.

The legendary New York pop and jazz singer died on Friday aged 96.

An announcement posted on his Twitter account mentioned: “Tony left us today but he was still singing the other day at his piano and his last song was Because of You, his first #1 hit.

“Tony, due to you we’ve got your songs in our coronary heart ceaselessly.”

Sir Elton John, Carole King and Hilary Clinton were among those paying tribute to the star on social media.

Bennett was known for songs such as The Way You Look Tonight, Body and Soul and (I Left My Heart) In San Francisco.

He also collaborated with star performers from Lady Gaga to Aretha Franklin and Frank Sinatra, who called him “the perfect singer within the enterprise”.

During a career that spanned eight decades, Bennett sold millions of records and won 20 Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award.

Bennett’s death was confirmed by his publicist Sylvia Weiner in a statement to the Associated Press.

She said he died in his hometown of New York. No specific cause of death was announced, but Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.

“Without doubt the classiest singer, man, and performer you’ll ever see,” Sir Elton said. “He’s irreplaceable. I liked and adored him. Condolences to Susan, Danny and the household.”

The White House released a statement saying that “Tony Bennett did not simply sing the classics – he himself was an American basic” and praising his enduring contributions to American life.

Former US first woman Hillary Clinton described Bennett as a “true expertise, a real gentleman, and a real buddy”. She tweeted: “We’ll miss you, Tony, and thanks for all of the recollections.”

Singer Carole King said: “RIP Tony Bennett. Such an enormous loss. Deepest sympathy to his household and the world.”

In a press release to Rolling Stone, singer Billy Joel said: “Tony Bennett was the one of the vital necessary interpreters of American fashionable music in the course of the mid to late twentieth Century.

“He championed songwriters who might otherwise have remained unknown to many millions of music fans. His was a unique voice that made the transition from the era of Jazz into the age of Pop.

“I’ll all the time be thankful for his excellent contribution to the artwork of latest music. He was a pleasure to work with. His vitality and enthusiasm for the fabric he was performing was infectious. He was additionally one of many nicest human beings I’ve ever identified.”

Director Martin Scorsese added: “Tony Bennett was a consummate artist. All it’s a must to do is hearken to any considered one of his a whole bunch of recordings to recognise that.

“Very early on, his music quietly wove itself into the fabric of our lives. His voice felt as familiar and as close as the voices of our loved ones. I know that this was true for millions of people around the world.”

Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto, to a household of Italian immigrants, Bennett was simply 9 years previous when his father died, plunging the household additional into poverty.

As a youngster he turned a singing waiter earlier than enrolling to review music and portray at New York’s School of Industrial Art.

He was drafted into the US military in 1944 to struggle in France and Germany in direction of the top of World War Two. “It’s legalised murder,” he mentioned of the scarring expertise in an interview with the Guardian in 2013.

After returning dwelling, his singing profession continued – first underneath the identify Joe Bari – and his breakthrough got here in 1951 the music Because of You, which gave him first primary.

He modified his identify to the Americanised Tony Bennett on the say so of fellow entertainer Bob Hope.

Bennett quickly turned a teenage icon, releasing his first album in 1952. The identical yr his marriage ceremony was besieged by feminine followers in mourning.

He went on to chart within the US in each subsequent decade of his life, constructing a repute for making timeless swinging jazz-inflected pop hits – like Blue Velvet and Rags to Riches – and, later, present tunes and large band numbers.

His 1962 model of a music from the earlier decade, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, despatched his star into a good larger orbit, successful him two Grammys.

Bennett was a supporter of the civil rights motion and took half within the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches whereas additionally refusing to carry out in apartheid-era South Africa.

However, with the arrival of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones into the US, as the last decade rolled on his relevance pale.

Personal issues adopted, together with the top of two marriages and drug habit.

He carried out via the ache, recording two data with pianist Bill Evans.

After hiring his son Danny to turn out to be his supervisor and reuniting together with his pianist and musical director Ralph Sharon, his fortunes started to alter.

He loved a revival within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, when Grammy awards flooded in for the star, then in his sixties.

His 1986 comeback album, The Art of Excellence, received the ball rolling once more for the star who had returned to New York from Las Vegas.

He adopted it with the chart-topping Perfectly Frank, a tribute to his musical hero Sinatra, earlier than 1994’s MTV Unplugged noticed Bennett win the Grammy for album of the yr.

In an interview with the Independent in 2008, Bennett mentioned he had not been shocked by his renewed success.

“Good music is good music,” he mentioned. “I’m not concerned with whether someone who listens to me is old or young. In fact, in many ways, I’m not interested in the young at all.

“I’m desirous about age. People study to stay correctly once they get of an age, you recognize? The late Duke Ellington as soon as mentioned to me that he was actually offended by the phrase class.

“Music has no category; it’s either good or it isn’t, and I sing good songs, great songs, written by the best songwriters. It’s that kind of quality that makes them last. Trust me, people will be singing these songs forever.”

Bennett remained perpetually cool sufficient to win over new legions of followers.

He collaborated with a bunch of youthful artists – who adored him – together with Amy Winehouse, Queen Latifah and Carrie Underwood on the follow-up to 2006’s Duets: An American Classic, which had earlier seen him sing with Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and George Michael.

in 2014, his joint album with Lady Gaga, Cheek to Cheek, made him the oldest residing act to achieve the highest of the US charts, at 88, breaking his personal earlier document.

Gaga described the outcomes of working with the “legend” as “the most important album of my career.”

Shortly after his ninetieth birthday he advised the New York Times: “I could have retired 16 years ago, but I just love what I’m doing.”

In 2021, 5 years after his 2016 Alzheimer’s prognosis, Bennett carried out his ultimate exhibits alongside Gaga, with whom, for youthful followers, he turned carefully related.

He posted on social media on the time: “Life is a gift – even with Alzheimer’s.”

Away from music, as a eager painter, Bennett had his work displayed in galleries. He additionally based the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in his hometown Queens.

He is survived by 4 youngsters: Danny, Dae, Joanna and Antonia, in addition to his spouse Susan Crow.

Paying tribute to the singer, musician Nile Rogers said “My most heartfelt condolences go out to Tony Bennett’s family and friends.”