Singer Engelbert Humperdinck on touring after wife's death

"I'm playing a lot better because she's watching over me," says British pop balladeer, 89

- Eddino Abdul Hadi

After his wife died in 2021, getting onstage and performing helped him cope, says veteran British singer Engelbert Humperdinck.

"I lost my darling," the 89-year-old pop balladeer famous for 1960s hits Release Me and The Last Waltz tells The Straits Times in a Zoom interview from his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles.

"And I find that singing and playing to audiences around the world releases something from me, it takes away the thinking."

His wife, British actress Patricia Healey, died at 85 of heart failure after battling Alzheimer's disease and Covid-19. The couple, who have four adult children, were married for 57 years.

"But since I've lost her, I'm reading the lyric of a song differently. There's more heart in it, there's more soul in it. I'm playing a lot better because she's watching over me."