Barbra Streisand Biography
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand (Born on April 24 1942, Brooklyn, New York, USA) is an American singer and actress, also reached success as a composer, filmmaker, producer and political activist. Winner of two Oscars in the nominations “Best Actress” and “Best Original Song”, as well as Emmy, Grammy Awards and the Golden Globe. Part of a small group of artists who have been awarded the prize “Emmy”, “Grammy”, “Oscar” and “Tony” – although only three were competitive awards and is one of two artists in this group, which also won the “Peabody”.
Streisand is considered one of the most commercially successful women in modern show business. She is the only singer to lead the Billboard 200 with her albums in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. In total, more than 145 million copies of her records were sold in the world.
Young years
Barbara Joan Streisand was born April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn (New York) in a Jewish family. Her father’s parents immigrated to the United States from Galicia . As his last place of residence, Isaac Streisand, the singer’s grandfather, indicated the city of Berezhany (currently the Ternopil region of Ukraine). Her father, Emanuel Streisand, a grammar teacher, died when she was just a year old. She had a bad relationship with her stepfather, Lius Kind, since he constantly beat her. In 1951, Streisand had a sister, Roslyn Kind, who later also became a singer. In 1959, Streisand graduated from Erasmas Hall High School, which she attended very rarely and where she sang with Neil Diamond in the school choir . There she made friends with future World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer . When Streisand decided to start a career in show business, her mother, school secretary Diana Ida Rosen, was unhappy with her daughter’s choice, because she considered her not attractive enough for this.
Career start
After winning one of the music competitions, Streisand was hired as a singer at a nightclub. Initially, she wanted to become an actress and participated in many theatrical productions, in one of which she played with the rising actress Joan Rivers. In 1960, at the invitation of her friend Barry Dennen, Streisand began to sing in a gay bar in Manhattan Greenwich Village, where she soon achieved significant success. At the same time, she shortened her name to Barbra to make it more distinctive.
In 1962, Streisand first appeared on Broadway in the small but famous role in the musical “I Will Get It For You In Bulk”. In the same year, she signed with Columbia Records. In 1962, she appeared in the Ed Sullivan Show, where she attracted the attention of famed pianist Vladzi Liberace. Soon, he offered her a collaboration, and Streisand began performing with him in Las Vegas.
In 1963, her debut album The Barbra Streisand Album was released, receiving two Grammy Awards. Streisand’s popularity continued to grow, and her three subsequent albums hit the Billboard 200 chart.
Musical career
Throughout her musical career, Streisand has recorded over 60 albums, most of which have been released with Columbia Records. Her early works (debut album, The Second Barbra Streisand Album , The Third Album , My Name Is Barbra and others) are considered classic recordings of music and songs from nightclubs and theaters, including her version of the song “Happy Days Are Here Again”, which she successfully performed in the “Judy Garland Show”. After this show, Streisand got his own project on CBS – My Name Is Barbra.
Since 1969, more and more pop songs began to appear in the Streisand repertoire. But unlike many other performers of that time, who began to focus on rock , she remained true to her style of performance. And this did not contribute to the less success of Streisand as a singer, on the contrary, her 1971 album Stoney End reached great heights in the charts, and the eponymous track became a major hit.
Throughout the 1970s, she continued to occupy high positions in charts with hits such as “The Way We Were”, “Evergreen”, “ No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) ” (with Donna Summer ) and “Woman in Love ”, some of which were voiced in films with her participation. In 1982, Stephen Holden, a music critic for The New York Times, wrote that “Streisand has become the most influential pop singer, outshining even Frank Sinatra.”
In 1985, Streisand returned to performing theater and music with the album The Broadway Album, which soon went platinum, holding its first position on the Billboard chart for three weeks. The Broadway Album was recognized as “Album of the Year” and brought Streisand the eighth Grammy statuette as “The Best Performer.”
In 1991, her four-disc collection Just for the Record was released, collecting all the Streisand hits by then. It contained over 70 tracks, including popular hits and rare recordings of her initial career.
In the early 1990s, Streisand agreed to head the Bill Clinton Support Fund as US President. And in 1993, she attended his inauguration .
At that time, Streisand’s career was in a slight stagnation, and she was asked to organize a concert tour. For about two years she had been discussing the organization of the concert, for a long time not daring to hold it because of public fear. Only in September 1993, Streisand announced the holding of a concert, the first in 27 years of her career. This statement caused a great stir in the media. So, for example, Time magazine called the Streisand concert “the musical event of the century.” The price of tickets sold out in half an hour ranged from 50 to 1,500 US dollars, thereby raising Streisand to the rank of the highest paid artist in history. Barbra Streisand: The Concert was one of the brightest concerts of the year, received five statues “Emmy”.
In 1999, Streisand announced the end of her career and on the eve of the new year 2000 arranged a farewell concert in Las Vegas, which became no less rush than her 1993 concert. At the end of the decade, Streisand remained one of the most successful female performers in the United States, supported by at least two albums for every decade since her career began.
In 2001, Streisand released the Christmas Memories album, which, after the events of September 11, she dedicated to all the victims of this tragedy. In 2003, The Movie Album was released, collecting famous songs from films, reworked and recorded with a symphony orchestra. In September 2005, Streisand released the album Guilty Pleasures, recorded in collaboration with British lead singer Bee Gees Barry Gibb . In 1980, they already recorded a joint album called Guilty, and the song “Woman in Love” from it then went around almost all the charts of the world.
In 2006, Streisand announced her intention to conduct a new tour, which started on October 4 in Philadelphia and was named Streisand: The Tour. The tour, which included twenty concerts, set box office records and finished seventh in the Billboard 200. The tour successfully went to twenty US cities, and upon its completion in the summer of 2007, for the first time in her career, Barbra performed a number of concerts in Europe, where the price of tickets reached up to 500 euros, and in the UK even up to 1,500 pounds. In June 2007, during a concert in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented Streisand with the Order of the Legion of Honor.
In February 2008, Forbes magazine placed Streisand in second place on the 2007 list of the richest singers with her $60,000,000 earned in the previous year.
November 17, 2008 Barbra Streisand Columbia Records at the studio to begin recording their new album with producer became Diana Krall. The album, called Love Is the Answer, was released on September 29, 2009. The new album took first place in the Billboard Hot 200, becoming the ninth album of the singer, who visited the top of the chart.
On August 23, 2011, the 33rd album of the singer What Matters Most was released , containing compositions by the famous four poets-songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman.
Movie career
Streisand’s first film was the musical comedy The Funny Girl (1968), based on the life of Fanny Bryce. It was specifically written for Streisand after the screenwriter of the musical, Jul Stein, saw Barbra in the musical “I Will Get It For You In Bulk.” This picture brought Streisand world fame, for this film she received an Oscar in the nomination “Best Actress”. Her next two films were also comedies, Hello, Dolly! “(1969) and” On a clear day you will see eternity “(1970), while the fourth film with her participation,” Eagle owl and kitty”(1970), became the movie version of the Broadway production. According to the script in this film, Streisand was supposed to star in one of the bare-chested scenes. But after the shooting, she regretted it, and the director removed this fragment from the film. However, a year later the High Society magazine got the original negatives of the film with the half-naked Barbra. After the publication of the photo, Streisand tried to take various measures so that the magazines did not go on sale, but still this edition of the magazine appeared on American stands. The film ” Eagle Owl and the Cat ” was also notable for the fact that this is the first picture where the main character (Streisand) says the word “f**k”.
In the 1970s, she also starred in the comedies “ What’s the matter, doc?” “(1972) and” All for Pete “(1974), as well as in the drama” Meeting of Two Hearts”(1973) with Robert Redford. The second Oscar as a composer for Evergreen’s Best Original Song brought her the film A Star Is Born (1976). In this nomination, she became the first female composer to receive this award.
Beginning in 1969 and ending in 1980, all films with Streisand’s participation were among the top ten highest-grossing films in the USA, but after the disastrous 1981 film All Night Away , Streisand rarely appeared in films, having since starred in only five films.
Streisand was the producer of several of her own films shot on Broadway productions. In the 1983 film Yentle , she acted as an actress, producer, director, and screenwriter. She repeated this experience in the film “ Lord of the Tides ” (1991). Both films received high praise from critics, and Stephen Spielberg called the Yentl a masterpiece. It is noteworthy that in 1984 the film “Yentl” received 5 nominations for ” Oscar “, but none of them were for “Best Film”, “Actress” or “Director”. In 1996, Streisand directed, produced and starred in the romantic film “ The Mirror Has Two Faces ”. The main musical theme from the film“I Finally Found Someone” performed by Streisand and Brian Adams was awarded nominations for Oscars and Golden Globes , and Lauren Bacall , who performed the actress’s mother in the picture, was awarded the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Award .
In 2004, after an eight-year hiatus, Barbara returned to the big screen, starring in Ben Stiller ’s comedy Meet the Fockers. This film was the most successful comedy in history, earning $ 516,642,939.
On March 7, 2010, Streisand appeared at the 82nd Academy Award ceremony , awarding the figurine Catherine Bigelow in the category ” Best Director’s Work ” for the film ” The Tempest Lord.”
December 15, 2010 Barbra Streisand became a guest of one of the latest releases of the “Larry King Show”.
In December of that year, the comedy “Little Fockers” was released, where Streisand again played the role of Rose Faker. Unlike the previous tape, this picture was negatively accepted by critics, and Streisand for the second time in her acting career received a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for her role .
In January 2011, reports appeared in the American press that Streisand was considering an offer to star in the movie Gypsy, a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. Streisand is also seen as one of the possible actresses, along with Meryl Streep , Lisa Minnelli and Glen Close , who will play the role of Norma Desmond in the new version of Sunset Boulevard. At the end of January 2011, Streisand began shooting in the comedy Anne Fletcher “The Curse of My Mother” with Seth Rogen in the title role, which was released in December 2012.
Barbra Streisand Albums:
This shortcode is deprecated. Use [knowledgebase columns="1"] instead.