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US singer Tony Bennett (2019 photo)
Photo: Evan Agostini / AP
The US singer Tony Bennett has been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for years.
Bennett's wife and son have made the 94-year-old's disease public in the magazine of the US Association of Retirees (AARP).
Bennett had already shown symptoms of the disease in 2015 and was officially diagnosed in 2016, his relatives said.
The famous singer and entertainer therefore has "increasingly fewer moments of clarity and awareness".
The symptoms of dementia, which is triggered by changes in the brain, include a deterioration in cognitive performance and thus increasing difficulties in coping with everyday life.
"Life is a gift - even with Alzheimer's," said Bennett's Twitter account about a picture of the musician at the piano.
He thanked his wife and family for their support and the magazine for telling its story.
According to his family, Bennett is still musically active.
As his wife reported, he still goes through a 90-minute playlist twice a week with longtime pianist Lee Musik.
According to the magazine, Bennett still sings with perfect pitch.
"He's not old Tony anymore," his wife Susan is quoted as saying.
"But when he sings he's old Tony again."
Bennett, born in New York in 1926, sang his famous signature tune "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" for the first time in 1961 in San Francisco, which won him his first Grammy trophy a year later.
At an advanced age, the 18-time Grammy Award winner recorded songs with many younger artists.
Singers like Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse and Sheryl Crow stepped up to the microphone with Bennett.
His album "Cheek To Cheek" with Lady Gaga was also a great success.
Numerous stars had congratulated Bennett online on his 94th birthday last year.
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fek / AP / dpa