Lisa Minnelli is just weeks away from turning 80. The star and EGOT winner, has had an illustrious career across music, theatre and film - but more than 50 years since she performed as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, she's made a candid comment about ageing.
The 79-year-old has penned her first-ever memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!, in which she details her heartbreak over her mother Judy Garland's death, her friendship with the late Princess Diana, the moment she found out her husband Peter Allen was gay, and her struggle with addiction. In excerpts obtained by The Times, Liza got candid about ageing, admitting she had a "dancer’s body that steadily weakens".
"If you’re picturing me in a rocking chair on a porch somewhere, looking back nostalgically, guess again. As much as I can be, days away from turning 80, I’m still in the game, baby," she penned in the memoir ahead of her 80th birthday on March 12.
"I was given a dancer’s body that steadily weakens, but also a big heart and a life force so strong, I don’t know where the hell it comes from. To paraphrase the best song in Bye Bye Birdie, the show that lit a flame in me to entertain when I was a teenager, I’ve got a lot of living left to do," she quoted the track 'A Lot of Livin' to Do' from the 1960 musical and subsequent 1963 film.
© Ron GalellaRare on-stage appearances
The singer has made scarce public appearances in recent years. She previously was seen on-stage in a wheelchair at the 2022 Academy Awards alongside award-winning singer Lady Gaga. Liza wrote in her memoir that she had expected to sit in her director's chair on stage while co-presenting the best picture award.
"It’s easiest on my back," she explained. However, she claimed, "minutes before airtime I was ordered - not even asked - to sit in a wheelchair or not appear at all."
"I was stunned. I was told it was because of my age, which was insulting, and for safety reasons, which was b------t," she alleged. She claimed Lady Gaga had insisted she be in a wheelchair to go on stage.
© Penske Media via Getty ImagesA few years later, Liza returned to the stage in 2025 for another rare public appearance at the Dancers Against Cancer's Gala of the Stars event. She sat on an oversized velvet throne during a performance honouring her long-term friend Janet Jackson with the Icon of the Year award.
Continued work
The EGOT winner has continued to work over the years, releasing her first new music in 13 years in January 2026. She put out the track titled Kids, Wait Til You Hear This, which adds her vocals to an AI-created EDM track. In a social media post celebrating her new song, Liza clarified she used "AI arrangements" rather than AI-generated vocals. "The shout-outs are all mine!".
Liza shared the track is a "tease" for her new memoir, which has the same name. The memoir comes out on March 10 and was written in collaboration with her long-term friend, musician Michael Feinstein.
