Today, the unstoppable force that is Barbra Streisand celebrates her 70th birthday.
Actress, singer, hit movie producer, multi-millionaire and philanthropist, Miss Streisand is indeed a one-woman phenomenon. She one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar (twice), Emmy (five times), Grammy (eight times), and Tony Award. With more than 140 million albums sold worldwide, very few artists (male or female) are her serious rivals.
As with all such monumentally prolific artists, she has a bit of a mixed bag of a back catalogue - her choice of sugary-sweet material has sometimes been a bit too much for our tastes here at Dolores Delargo Towers. But with such classics as
The Way We Were,
Enough is Enough,
Papa Can You Hear Me?,
Evergreen,
Guilty (and many more) under her belt we forgive her. Her 1985
Broadway Album is still one of the best of its kind.
And of course, hers is one of our all-time favourite barnstorming numbers. In the world. Ever! The original and the best, it's
Don't Rain On My Parade...
Facts about Mega-Babs:
- Barbra dropped an 'a' from the original spelling of her name when she was 18. She has admitted that she "hated" the spelling but refused to change her name.
- Always a stalwart supporter of gay rights, when her son Jason Gould came out as a gay man, Barbra said: "Nobody on this earth has the right to tell anyone that their love for another human being is morally wrong."
- In America, she is the only artist to have had Number 1 albums in five decades from the sixties to the noughties. She has earned 51 gold, 30 platinum and 18 multi-platinum albums. Her 1964 LP People was the first of her eight to top the charts. She also holds the record for the longest gap between a first and last chart-topping album - which currently stands at 46 years.
- Streisand was director Ken Russell's first choice to play Eva Peron in 1996 film Evita. She declined the role, which was eventually taken by Madonna.
Barbra Streisand website
