Copacabana singer Barry Manilow, known for his extravagant stage presence and dominating charts in the 70s and early 80s, has been spotted in a rare sighting smoking a vape during an outing in Palm Springs.

The 81-year-old singer was spotted after he announced a money-rolling deal at his favorite Las Vegas Casino – securing a lifetime residency at Sin City’s Westgate Resort & Casino’s International Theater.

He started his residency  earlier this month with his show A Very Barry Christmas.

Manilow had a grungy, sophisticated look on his outing. He sported a blue and brown checkered shirt on top of a black T-shirt, dark-wash skinny jeans secured with a black belt and black sneakers.

The singer wore highlights well, with dyed iced-out tips contrasting against his brown hair.

The vape could raise eyebrows for fans who saw Manilow’s numerous health problems allegedly revolving around his habitual smoking habit.

Manilow told the London Evening Standard in a 2012 interview that he gave up smoking in the 90s and switched to electronic cigarettes.

He also confessed to the outlet that he’d been smoking since age nine. This would potentially lead to the singer developing throat cancer that led to vocal cord issues and multiple hospitalizations for bronchial infections that had him cancelling concerts in 2018.

The Brooklyn native picked up the habit when he lived in the Williamsburg neighborhood, at that time a tough area, and had a complicated family history.

His father Harold Kelliher was cut off from the family after his parents divorced, because his mother’s Jewish family didn’t allow contact due to him being a poor Irish truck driver.

The superstar singer told the Irish Independent: Right now it sounds stupid but back then they thought that having a Jewish son was the most important thing.

‘To me, it means nothing. As a matter of fact, it would have been interesting if my name was Barry Kelliher and I was raised half-Irish and half-Jewish, but I wasn’t. The Irish part of me did not exist. It was gone and forgotten.

His grandparents had his name changed to Manilow a few weeks before his Bar Mitzvah and the singer would only see his father two more times in his life, but by then he said ‘it was too late’.

This adversity wouldn’t stop him from pursuing music. While attending the New York College of Music, he also worked in the mailroom at CBS to pay his expenses. It was at CBS where he rolled the dice.

Bro Herrod, a CBS director, asked him to arrange some songs for a musical adaptation of The Drunkard, a melodrama, in 1964. Manilow then wrote an entire original score which Herrod used in the off-Broadway musical.

Manilow is known for songs such as Copacabana, I Write the Songs, and Mandy, but he’s also responsible for iconic jingles that we still hear in commercials today.

‘Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there’ and ‘I am stuck on Band-Aid, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me’ were both written by Manilow.

His pieces for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pepsi’s ‘Pepsi generation’ songs, and Dr. Pepper were big ensembles that got folks running to the fast-food chains to indulge in their favorites.

Manilow’s work earn him an Honorary Clio at the 50th anniversary in Las Vegas in 2009 for his work in the 1960s.

The singer’s big break came in 1969 when he was signed by Columbia Music’s vice president  Tony Orlando, who co-wrote and produced with Manilow under a group of studio musicians under the name Featherbed.

But Featherbed’s singles didn’t impact the charts. Manilow would instead get his first Grammy nomination through his collaboration with Bette Midler on 1972 album The Divine Miss M.

When Featherbed failed, Manilow was given the opportunity to release his own album Barry Manilow in 1973 under Bell Records. This album was also unsuccessful, but some of the tracks on the album would be re-released in 1975 under his second album Barry Manilow II.

That rereleased album was certified gold in 1976 with half a million copies sold.

On this second album, the love song Mandy would be the start of Manilow’s stardom, becoming his first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

At a time when hitting Billboard’s top 40 was crucial for an artists’ success, Manilow went on to have 25 top 40 hits between 1975 and 1983. It’s a Miracle, Could it Be Magic and Can’t Smile Without You became other all-time favorites.

And 29 albums of his have become certified platinum while Barry Manilow/Live (1977), Even Now (1978) and Greatest Hits (1978) were certified triple platinum.

Copacabana (At the Copa) is arguably the most recognizable of Manilow’s songs to this day. The story of showgirl Lola, the bartender Tony who’s her lover and the infamous wealthy mobster Rico captivated audiences – especially because of Manilow’s live performances of the number.

His live concerts were always packed. Manilow’s sold out dates at the Even Tour at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles aired on the HBO series Standing Room Only on February 11, 1979. It was the first pay-television show that posed a threat to network primetime specials for ratings.

His most recent Grammy nomination was in 2014 for his album My Dreams Duets, his 15th nomination throughout the decades.

This consistent record breaking earned Manilow Billboard’s title of #1 Adult Contemporary Artist of all time.

Now, Manilow is making his way back to his beloved Las Vegas. He completed a two-year residency in 2012 – staying there for a total of seven years. In 2021, he launched his Las Vegas residency The Hits Come Home at Sin City’s Westgate Resort & Casino’s International Theater.

As of 2024, he agreed to a lifetime residency at Westgate resort, which he described as his favorite casino.

Manilow came out as gay in 2017, secretly starting a relationship with TV executive Garry Kief in 1978 before marrying in 2014 when same-𝓈ℯ𝓍 marriage was legalized in California.

But he married his high-school classmate Susan Deixler in 1964 and stated that the marriage was annulled in 1966, not because of his 𝓈ℯ𝓍ual orientation, but the strain his music career had on their marriage.

He shares a stepdaughter with Kief through his husband’s previous marriage and an adopted granddaughter.