Lady Gaga Says 'Heartbreaking' to Watch Tony Bennett's Alzheimer's Battle After Grammy Nominations

Lady Gaga thanked the Recording Academy and praised Tony Bennett after their Cole Porter tribute album was nominated for six Grammy Awards

By Natasha Dado

Published on November 24, 2021 10:48 AM

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett have a lot to celebrate.

On Tuesday, the Recording Academy announced the nominees for the 64th Grammy Awards, revealing that 35-year-old pop star and 95-year-old legendary singer were nominated for six awards for their joint album Love for Sale, a Cole Porter tribute album.

The record, released Oct. 1, has been nominated for album of the year, record of the year, best pop duo/group performance, best traditional pop vocal album, best music video, and best engineered album, non-classical.

On Instagram Tuesday, Gaga, 35, thanked the Recording Academy and praised her collaborator, posting a photo with Bennett, 95, and art celebrating their nominations.

"Thank you so much to the @RecordingAcademy for these 6 nominations for Love For Sale. I am stunned and shocked and beyond grateful. I don't know what to say. I just keep crying and am utterly speechless," she wrote. "This means so much to me, @itstonybennett, the Bennetts, my family, jazz music, and the great Cole Porter who wrote all these timeless classics."

"I'll never forget that today he could track every word I was saying and understood the world was celebrating him and celebrating jazz - a genre that embodies the joy, abundance and imagination of Black music throughout history," she continued. "Thank you to all the Grammy voters for recognizing me and Tony's dedication to jazz music and for also recognizing it in major categories where this music is often not nominated."

The House of Gucci actress also added that the album was Bennett's idea and credited him for bringing it to life.

"This album happened because it was Tony's idea and I made him a promise that we would make it and we did. At 95 years old, he has more nominations than ever, I'm so honored to be his companion in music and his friend," she said.

"Thank you to the public for loving us, we surely love each other, and you. Believe in love and partnership, even with 60 years between us, and Alzheimer's, there is nothing like the magic of music. I love you Tony, and the world loves you too. How could they not?"

After the nominations were announced, Gaga appeared on BBC Radio 2's The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show Wednesday morning to talk about Bennett, who has been quietly living with Alzheimer's disease since 2016. The iconic singer's family publicly revealed Bennett's diagnosis earlier this year, and his wife Susan Benedetto has said that he still remembers Gaga.

Asked how Bennett is doing, Gaga said, "Tony is one of my most favorite people on the whole planet and I love him with all my heart. I love his family with all my heart, I love his wife, Susan, with all my heart. I can't tell you how much I learned from him and what it's like to sing with a legend for so many years."

She continued, "I've sung with Tony for almost 10 years, and it's heartbreaking to watch what he's going through having Alzheimer's, and also I wish to say to anybody that's listening that knows somebody with Alzheimer's or dementia that's dealing with that in their lives. If you are with that person that you love, play some music from their childhood and I promise you that they will come to life in a way that is not expected, and not everyone you know, every case is different and everybody's different, but they're still there and my heart goes out to you and this album was made while he had Alzheimer's and we sang it while he had Alzheimer's and he were still able to do it, I am just floored by him."

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards will be held Monday, Jan. 31, 2022 and air on CBS.