NEWS

June 12, 2026 BY Pancho Symes Ballina Times

ENGELBERT Humperdinck says the hairs on the back of his neck “still stand up” when he hears the opening bars of Release Me.

Nearly 60 years after the song famously kept The Beatles from reaching No.1 on the UK singles chart, and ahead of his upcoming Gold Coast performance, the veteran entertainer has reflected on a career that has stretched across generations, shifting music industries and audiences around the world.

Globally recognised as the “King of Romance”, Humperdinck said the image that defined much of his career was helped shape early on by manager Gordon Mills, who also managed Tom Jones.

“Tom Jones did the Rock and Roll and I did the romance,” Humperdinck said.

“That’s how it was put out.”

“So I did all the romantic songs and, fortunately for me, it worked.”

He also reflected on the unusual stage name that helped define his career, saying it was chosen for him by Mills and allowed him to stand out in the industry.

“When you have an unusual name, people take notice of it,” he said.

“I took a name that was kind of long and not very pretty sounding and turned it into a romantic image, which I’m very proud of.”

The singer also recalled the intensity of fan devotion during the height of his fame, when performances were often met with screaming audiences.

“That happened, not to the extent of what The Beatles had to go through… but they did a lot of screaming and it was quite exciting,” he said.

“Don’t forget my career is 59 years old and I think I’ve learned a lot, and my audiences change in their attitude and the way they approach your performance.”

“And it’s just different in today’s world, they appreciate the music a lot more now I think, so they listen more, rather than screaming.”

Humperdinck said his life changed dramatically after the release of Release Me in 1967, which became a worldwide phenomenon and famously denied The Beatles a 12th UK number one single.

“I couldn’t believe it myself,” he said.

“It was like a non-entity from nowhere, to be up against the almighty Beatles, who I was a big fan of or still am…”

While the song had been recorded by several artists prior to his version, Humperdinck’s 1967 rendition became a global hit, with the singer crediting the song’s arrangement as a key factor in its success.

He credited arranger Charles Blackwell with helping shape the final sound.

“He did a miraculous job of making that song so recognizable,” Humperdinck said.

“When I hear that introduction, the hairs on the back of my neck still stand up.”

Despite a career spanning more than six decades, Humperdinck said his passion for performing has not faded.

“One thing is for sure, I’m not tired of it,” he said.

“I love my job, I love what I’m doing. I’m still recording.”

He said staying connected with fans has helped sustain his career in the modern era.

“My following is absolutely magnificent,” he said.

“It’s like a cult following.”

“Everywhere I go, at all my shows, I’m greeted in a very wonderful way.”

Humperdinck also said social media has become an important tool for maintaining that connection, including his regular “Tuesday Museday” updates.

“I inform my fans around the world what I’m doing that particular week,” he said.

“I read their comments and I pay attention to them because I think it’s important.”

Still, he admits he misses aspects of the old music industry.

“I love the old-fashioned way with vinyl,” he said.

“You could call up the record company and say, “how many did you sell today?”

“It’s something that doesn’t happen in today’s market.”

“You have to find out about downloads and this and that… it’s not the same.”

“That excitement has gone out of recording, really.”

Humperdinck will bring his enduring catalogue of romance to The Star Gold Coast in Broadbeach on July 6 as part of The Celebration Tour 2026.

The show starts at 7pm, with tickets available at Ticketek.

https://timesnewsgroup.com.au/ballinatimes/living/the-king-of-romance-engelbert-humperdinck-looks/

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/28268129/episode/336583193/?keyid=AutomatedPodcasts&ihrnetwork=true&embed=true

Sun, 7 Jun 2026, 1:19pm

Engelbert Humperdinck: British singers speaks ahead of New Zealand tour - 

The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Engelbert Humperdinck's been dubbed the 'king of romance' - with a long-running musical career to show for it.

Rising to fame alongside The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, he's released  64 albums, been nominated for four Grammys and one Golden Globe, and he's kept the attention of millions of listeners over 60 years.

He turned 90 last month and he's still going  strong, with his Celebration Tour set to arrive in New Zealand later in the month.

"I've been so used to travelling and doing my thing, it's second nature to me, I don't worry about things like that."

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/the-sunday-session/audio/engelbert-humperdinck-british-singer-speaks-ahead-of-new-zealand-tour/

Vic­toria Meakin 6 Jun 2026 The Press

“King of Romance” Engel­bert Hump­erdinck has been blast­ing out ever­green bal­lads for six dec­ades, but the 90-year-old – who arrives in New Zea­l­and later this month to play three dates – says he will sing until the end.

The Brit­ish pop icon, whose 1967 record Release Me pro­pelled him to global star­dom, will per­form in Wel­ling­ton, Christ­ch­urch, and Auck­land, with his Cel­eb­ra­tion Tour mark­ing his first visit to Aotearoa in seven years.

At an age when most of his mid-cen­tury con­tem­por­ar­ies have since depar­ted, Hump­erdinck is a show­busi­ness time cap­sule, but has no interest in tak­ing things easy in his twi­light years.

Speak­ing from his Bel Air, Cali­for­nia, home, the vet­eran singer says a period of inac­tion before a tour two years ago was enough to show him that hanging up the micro­phone was not an option.

“Before The Last Waltz tour star­ted, I was home for a couple of months, and I was just going crazy climb­ing the walls. And I called up man­age­ment, [and] I said, ‘there's no way this can be the last waltz for me. I've got to keep going until I can't do it any more, until God's called me’.”

Born in India in 1936 as Arnold Dorsey, he was 10 when the fam­ily – his mother, father and their 10 chil­dren – moved to Leicester in the United King­dom.

His record­ing career began in the late 1950s, but his jour­ney to inter­na­tional super­star­dom was cemen­ted in 1967 when Release Me spent 56 weeks on the charts, fam­ously pre­vent­ing The Beatles' double A-side single Penny Lane/Straw­berry Fields Forever from reach­ing the num­ber 1 spot.

By the 1970s, fol­low-up hits includ­ing The Last Waltz, There Goes My Everything and A Man Without Love cemen­ted Hump­erdinck as a main­stay of the Las Vegas cir­cuit, where he formed friend­ships with mem­bers of the legendary Rat Pack – fea­tur­ing Frank Sinatra and Dean Mar­tin – together with Elvis Pres­ley, who fam­ously stole the show dur­ing one of the Brit­ish singer’s per­form­ances in the resort city.

Spot­ted by Hump­erdinck and intro­duced from the stage, Pres­ley stood up in his booth and dra­mat­ic­ally threw open his cape, send­ing the audi­ence into a 10-minute frenzy.

Hump­erdinck had to yell to his friend, “Elvis, this is my show!”

Behind the glitz that sur­roun­ded him from the mid-60s onwards, was Hump­erdinck’s wife Patri­cia, who he met as a teen­ager at a dance hall in Leicester, sev­eral years before his rise to fame.

He has spoken pub­licly about regret­ting being unfaith­ful to his wife of 57 years as he embraced his for­tune and describes Patri­cia – who for­gave his mis­de­mean­ours – as his soul­mate and biggest sup­porter.

After liv­ing with Alzheimer’s dis­ease for more than a dec­ade, Patri­cia died from Covid-19 com­plic­a­tions in Feb­ru­ary 2021. The loss fun­da­ment­ally changed her hus­band’s con­nec­tion to his rep­er­toire.

“Since I’ve lost her, I read lyr­ics a lot dif­fer­ently, they mean a lot more to me now, as I por­tray them,” he says. “I think it's a dif­fer­ent feel­ing alto­gether, and I recog­nise it.”

For a per­former who has out­lived many of his fans, Hump­erdinck has always ener­get­ic­ally moved with the times. While he admits the mod­ern mech­an­ics of digital music and charts can be con­fus­ing com­pared to the days of call­ing up his record com­pany to track phys­ical sales, he has suc­cess­fully transitioned into a digital-era star. His latest single, I’ve Got You, recently reached num­ber 1 as a new best­seller on the Amazon charts.

In recent years A Man Without Love fea­tured in the Dis­ney Plus show Moon Knight, Brad Pitt movie Bul­let Train included a Hump­erdinck rendi­tion of Forever Blow­ing Bubbles and the singer is heard on Net­flix’s The Umbrella Academy, per­form­ing Quando, Quando, Quando.

The nona­gen­arian has built a large online com­munity, post­ing his reg­u­lar

Tues­day Museday series on You­Tube and Tik­tok to hun­dreds of thou­sands of fol­low­ers.

He has 2.89 mil­lion listen­ers on Spo­tify and des­pite his many dec­ades in the busi­ness he says he always finds a way to make per­form­ances fresh.

“Release Me is 59 years old, and when I sing that on stage – I don't sing the entire song, because the audi­ence sings it with me – but as soon as I hear the intro it does send the hairs up on the back of my neck, because to think, this is the song that star­ted my life. And it’s such a big song; it’s such an amaz­ing song.”

https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-press/20260606/281771340869320

By:  Anne Pasajol INQUIRER.net / 05:10 PM June 05, 2026

Age hasn’t dampened the passion of British singer Engelbert Humperdinck who, at 90 years old, remains eager to discover new experiences and songs. 

Amid his already established status as an icon, the “Quando Quando Quando” hitmaker expressed his intent to continuously challenge himself creatively. 

“You know when you’re a performer, you’re always looking for new accomplishments. And no matter how long I’ve been in this business — which is 59 years — I’m still looking for new things to do, new songs to sing; talking to people online; doing radio shows, television shows,” he said in an online media conference ahead of his “The Celebration Tour” in Manila in September.

“That’s always something I like doing. This business keeps me busy,” he added.

He underscored as well how despite his age, his performance remains unchanged, even noting how he only feels like he is in his 50s.

“I love to perform and that’s one of the reasons why at this time in my life, I’m still performing and recording. I just recorded a new single, ‘I’ve Got You’… This kind of song will last forever,” he stated.

As he keeps up with the modern music landscape, Humperdinck gave his two cents on artificial intelligence (AI) which has had a significant impact on the industry.

“AI can be very beneficial, but it can also be very hurtful. It got so much knowledge wrapped up — people are gonna be able to cheat,” he said, even noting its effect on education. “In schools, they can get questions answered very quickly by just quoting AI, and it seems a little unfair.”

During the online press conference, Humperdinck looked forward to performing in the Philippines and being with Filipino fans whom he described as “very good singers.”

Aside from “Quando Quando Quando,” Humperdinck is also best known for his hits “A Man Without Love,” “Spanish Eyes,” “The Way It Used Be,” and “Release Me,” among many others.

Humperdinck is set to hold his “The Celebration Tour” show at New Frontier Theater on Sept. 25.

https://entertainment.inquirer.net/672800/engelbert-humperdinck-keeps-passion-for-performing-exploring-new-music-at-90