Barry Manilow is an American singer and songwriter best known for his recordings "I Write the Songs", "Mandy" and "Copacabana". Manilow was born Barry Alan Pincus, June 17, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York, to Harold and Edna Pincus. Edna and Harold, who was born to a Russian Jewish father and Irish mother, divorced when Barry was two years old. Barry was brought up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn by his mother, Edna Manilow, and Joseph and Esther Manilow, his Russian Jewish immigrant maternal grandparents who had a strong influence on his life.