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Barbra Streisand (1942-) is, quite simply, the best-selling female singer of all time.
She has had an astonishing thirty-one albums hit the Top Ten, nine of which went Number One, and is the only singer in history to have a Number One album in five consecutive decades, beginning with People in 1964 and, as of now, ending with Love Is The Answer in 2009. She has also had Top 10 singles in four consecutive decades, from "People" (1964) to "I Finally Found Someone" (her 1996 duet with Bryan Adams). She's one of the top performers in the history of Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, scoring eight #1 hits there between 1964 and 1983 (and five #1 Pop hits between 1974 and 1980). She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammys, four Emmys, an honorary Tony[1] and a Peabody, was the first woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Director, was a Kennedy Center Honors honoree and won AFI's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. While not known as a songwriter, she has written a few, including the Oscar-winning "Evergreen" from her remake of A Star Is Born (co-written with Paul Williams).
Streisand made her film debut as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, for which she split a Best Actress Oscar with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter). She would later give noted performances in Hello, Dolly!, The Way We Were (opposite Robert Redford) and Yentl (which she also produced and directed).
Oh, yes, she's a director as well. Other directing credits include The Mirror Has Two Faces and The Prince Of Tides.
She has taken heat for the shape of her nose over the years (well, decades), most notably from New York Times critic John Simon, who has been waging a jihad on the singer's nose since the 1970s. To her credit, Ms. Streisand refused to undergo cosmetic surgery early in her career, though admittedly not out of a high moral principle; she once famously credited her unique voice to a deviated septum. "If I ever had my nose fixed, it would ruin my career." Barbra's nose was referenced on Glee, where Kurt uses it to talk Rachel (who is a fan of Streisand) out of getting a nose job.
She is also a noted political activist, and was very close friends with former President Bill Clinton (whom she introduced at his first inauguration) and his mother Virginia Dwyer, whom she called at least once a week from when they met to Dwyer's death. She is a famous (or infamous) supporter of liberal causes large and small and is noted for her strong stances on feminism and gay marriage, among other issues, as well as her criticism of former President Donald Trump (she even recorded an anti-Trump song called "Don't Lie to Me").
Although the population as a whole either loves her or despises her, she is a pop culture icon and one of the most important celebrities in the past fifty years of American history.
Her music is often referenced in media as being favored by gay men — expect any man listening to or asking for a song by her to have their sexuality questioned.
- Streisand Effect: Her attempt to block photos of her house from being released backfired so badly that it wound up naming this trope and providing the page image.
- Covered Up: One of Barbra's earlier hits, "Stoney End," was a Laura Nyro composition, and she also had success with "Where You Lead" originally from Carole King's album Tapestry. Her version of "Memory," from Cats, is also better known to American listeners than the original by Elaine Paige (or the later version by Barry Manilow even though his was a bigger hit).
- Incredibly Long Note: "Woman in Love" is an example. So is her #1 hit duet with Donna Summer, "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" - during the recording, Summer even famously lost her breath and fell from a stool from trying to hold a note longer than Streisand!
- Let's Duet: Two of her #1 Billboard hits have been duets - "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (with Neil Diamond) and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (with Donna Summer). She's also had success duetting with Barry Gibb, Bryan Adams, Céline Dion (a lifelong fan), Vince Gill, Kim Carnes, and even Don Johnson. Oh, and even herself (her cover of the Bacharach/David songs "One Less Bell to Answer"/"A House Is Not a Home").
- Michael Jackson wanted Streisand as his duet partner for his Bad album's first single, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You." Streisand disliked the song and turned it down, meaning she missed out on a #1 hit (which Jackson ultimately sang with Siedah Garrett).
- Long Runner: She has been active since the 1960s. As of 2023, her recording career has spanned 61 years.
- The Musical: One of her specialties.
- Signature Song: "Don't Rain on My Parade." Also, "The Way We Were" and "As If We Never Said Goodbye."
- Signature Style: She sings ballads with some mid-tempo, in a classic pop style with a heavy dash of New York accent. She plays characters who mix great ambition with great insecurity, who are willing to take great risks to get what they want. Material success comes to these characters more easily than interpersonal success (with others or themselves). It should also be mentioned that she does this very, very well.
- This also made her quite adept at singing disco hits in the late '70s, notably "The Main Event/Fight" and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)."
- ↑ Which makes her one of only 21 people to have pulled off an "EGOT" — winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony — though the honorary status of her Tony means that her position in that club is debatable.
EGOT : People who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards | |
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Earned with only competitive awards |
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Including special or honorary awards |
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