Attention, Fanilows! Barry Manilow stopped by Access Hollywood Live on Tuesday, where the icon weighed in on Nicki Minaj’s controversial lyric video for her new song, “Open,” which many claim contains rampant Nazi imagery.
“I can’t believe what’s she’s saying. Billy, I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Barry – whose new album, “My Dream Duets,” available now – told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover.
“How is this happening? I mean, what about all the people all around her stopping her from releasing this?” he continued. “This is bad for her career, man… Anything for publicity? Anything?!”
When asked if Barry has ever been told he needs to “shake it off” and stir up controversy for the sake of his career, Barry said, “no,” but joked, “Someone should’ve stopped me from wearing that stupid Copacabana shirt!”
The singer also weighed in on other famed entertainers. Here’s what he had to say:
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On Taylor Swift & Her New Platinum Album: “I think she’s great — even though she beat my ass on the charts last week. I still think she’s really, really great.”
On His Duet With Marilyn Monroe: “She’s not one of our famed singer, but she sounds pretty good on this one.”
On His Duet With Whitney Houston: “I knew Whitney – [what a ] beautiful, beautiful girl. She was wonderful. Gone too soon. This was an emotional experience for me. These people, when I was singing with them, they were in my headset and I forget they weren’t standing next to me. And when they gave me Whitney’s vocals, without echo, without processing, I hit [play] and it was like she was standing right next to me, singing. I had to keep going for the Kleenex.”
On Which Michael Jackson Song He’d Sing: “I should’ve done ‘Ben’… That was the only one I missed. I listed to all of the up-tempo things and that didn’t sound good with me but I didn’t think about ‘Ben.'”
— Erin O’Sullivan
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