‘I’ll be celebrating you a lot more than once a year’: Lady Gaga pays tribute to late Tony Bennett on his 97th birthday

Tony Bennett died last month at the age of 96 after a seven-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease

Lady Gaga took to Instagram on Thursday, August 3, to pay tribute toTony Bennett on what would have been his 97th birthday. The legendary pop, jazz and big-band vocalist died at the age of 96 after a seven-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. His official cause of death has yet to be announced.

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga perform at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, on April 26, 2015 in New Orleans (Photo by Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP, File) (Barry Brecheisen/Invision/AP)

“Happy Birthday Tony. August 3rd is Tony Bennett Day. A day for smiling. But I’ll be celebrating you a lot more than once a year. I’ll celebrate you every time I’m on stage singing jazz music, every time I’m with your family, every time I walk down the streets of New York I’ll look around and remember all you did for this city and the whole world,” Lady Gaga wrote on Instagram, posting three photos of herself in a black dress.

‘He believed in quality work AND quality life’

She continued, “He was an optimist, he believed in quality work AND quality life. Plus, there was the gratitude...Tony was always grateful. He served in WWII, marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and sang jazz with the greatest singers and players in the world. I've been grieving the loss of “Tony for a long time. We had a very long and powerful goodbye.”

Though there were 5 decades between us, he was my friend. My real true friend. Our age difference didn’t matter-- in fact, it gave us each something neither of us had with most people. We were from two different stages in life entirely--inspired. Losing Tony to Alzheimer’s has been painful but it was also really beautiful. An era of memory loss is such a sacred time in a persons life. There's such a feeling of vulnerability and a desire to preserve dignity. All I wanted was for Tony to remember how much I loved him and how grateful I was to have him in my life. But, as that faded slowly I knew deep down he was sharing with me the most vulnerable moment in his life that he could--being willing to sing with me when his nature was changing so deeply. I'll never forget this experience,” Gaga added.

“I'll never forget Tony Bennett. If I could say anything to the world about this I would say don’t discount your elders, don’t leave them behind when things change. Don’t flinch when you feel sad, just keep going straight ahead, sadness is part of it. Take care of your elders and I promise you will learn something special. Maybe even magical. And pay attention to silence—some of my musical partner and I’s most meaningful exchanges were with no melody at all,” she conluded.

Once Tony's career began becoming successful, there was no looking back. Millions of fans congratulated him for his enormous success on his 80th anniversary. IMDb says, “In November 2006, Bennett hosted a Gala-party in his honor at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. There he enjoyed live performances by numerous celebrities. The party came to culmination when Mr. Bennett entertained his guests by singing his best known hits: 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco' and 'What A Good Life’.” Tony was married twice, first to Patricia Beech in 1952. After they separated, he married Susan Crow in 2007.