When Warren Buffett takes the stage, he often steals the show. Yet the Oracle of Omaha sang to a crowd of some 400 prominent women on Monday night–and it wasn’t about Buffett. Instead, the world’s most successful investor put the spotlight on a dear friend.
At Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, CA, Buffett and singer-songwriter Paul Anka paid tribute to longtime Fortune writer Carol Loomis. Loomis, 85, recently retired from her post as senior editor at large at Fortune after spending 60 years at the magazine. Loomis, who’s something of a business journalism legend, is also close with Warren Buffett; She speaks with him nearly every day and edits Buffett’s yearly letter to Berkshire shareholders.
Set to the tune of My Way, a song made famous by Frank Sinatra and written by Paul Anka, Buffett and Anka serenaded the attendees of Fortune’s annual summit about Loomis’ famed career with Fortune.
“Some months ago, I gave Paul a few facts about Carol, but he wrote it,” said Buffett, 84. “We didn’t really practice. We know the song so well, we did nothing to practice.”
Loomis, who is not a fan of a public show, told Fortune that the performance was “glorious.”
“I think if you are going to be brought to prominence in one way, this is the best you can possibly have,” she said with a smile.
Buffett, a longtime (and brave) attendee of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, joked before his song about how happy he is to be among such a great group of women. “400 women. One guy. Life is good,” he said. But when it comes to attaining true power, Buffett says the goal is truly gender blind.
“You do the same thing a male will do,” he says. “You follow you passions. You find something you love. The truth is, so few people really jump on their jobs, you really will stand out more than you think. You will get noticed if you really go for it.”
