He writes the songs that make the whole world sing and now for the final time, Barry Manilow will perform those songs for a St. Louis audience. Manilow has announced that after celebrating his 81st birthday in June, he will embark on an eight-city tour across the Midwest to present his final shows.

St. Louis is the first stop on the tour, with Manilow set to perform at the Enterprise Center on July 25. Tickets for the show are currently on sale.

“It doesn’t mean I’m retiring or anything. I’ll do shows, and I’ll promote albums if I make any more, but no more big tours,” said Manilow in a statement released on his website. “That’s it. It’s too much packing. It’s 40 years—more than that, really—of packing and waiting for room service.”

Manilow expressed his hope to settle down more and spend time with his longtime husband, Garry Kief, his daughter, and his new grandchild.

Barry Manilow’s 2024 tour dates

• July 25: MO Enterprise Center, St. Louis
• July 26: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
• July 27: Allstate Arena, Rosemont, Illinois
• July 29: Resch Center, Green Bay
• July 30: CHI Health Center, Omaha, Nebraska
• Aug. 1: Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, Iowa
• Aug 2: Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
• Aug 3: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee

Final tour follows success of “Harmony”

The “Final Tour” will commence in the United Kingdom in late May before taking a break in mid-June for Manilow’s birthday. This project follows his recent Broadway success, “Harmony,” which concluded its run on Broadway on Sunday, Feb. 4.

The Jewish, Brooklyn-born singer/songwriter and his writing partner, Bruce Sussman, created the musical “Harmony,” produced by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene. The musical focused on the Comedian Harmonists, a performing troupe of Jews and non-Jews who combined close harmonies and stage antics in Germany during the 1920s and ‘30s.

Their success was a counterpoint to the rise of the Nazis, who eventually banned performances featuring work by Jewish composers, which had been a huge part of their repertoire. In 1934, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported at the time, the Harmonists were prohibited from giving public concerts because two members of the group were Jewish.