Singer Tony Orlando will perform his last concert next week, but the veteran entertainer insists he’s not retiring.
The man who sang hits like 1973′s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree” and 1970′s “Knock Three Times” in the trio Tony Orlando & Dawn, was scheduled to perform Friday night in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and will have a final concert March 22 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
But anyone expecting Orlando to shuffle off to a shuffleboard court are sadly mistaken.
“I’m not retiring from show business,” Orlando, who turns 80 on April 4, told HuffPost. “I’ve reinvented myself many times, and now I want to flex my creative muscles writing.”
Orlando said he’s working on screenplays and a novel, adding, “I even wrote a Broadway show.”
None of the projects has been produced, but that’s not necessarily Orlando’s main concern ― he says he just wants to be creative.
The retirement from live performances comes at a time when other seasoned entertainers, such as Elton John and Gladys Knight, have stepped back from the stage.
For Orlando, the decision was affected by what he calls a combination of demographics and timing.
“I’m 79, soon to be 80, and to go on a plane for a show is a 12-hour, sometimes 24-hour experience,” he said. “I’ve had enough!”
In addition, he admits his audiences are usually filled with people 50 and older, who aren’t as excited about going out, “especially with COVID or the flu. Plus, the average person who goes to a casino is 25-30.”
Orlando and fellow Dawn members Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, were among the biggest stars of the early and mid-1970s, thanks to hits like “Candida,” “Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose” and, of course, “Tie A Yellow Ribbon,” which inspired the yellow-ribbon campaigns to mark vigils for soldiers, hostages and other absent loved ones.
But success was a…
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