Barbra Streisand Announces Duets Album With Hollywood Stars, 2016 Concert Tour
Barbra Streisand will release a new album that will feature famous songs from the Great White Way. According to Billboard, Streisand’s upcoming album will be titled Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway, and it will pair the legendary 74-year-old singer “with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars to sing Broadway classics.”
There is no word yet on who Barbra Streisand’s duet partners will be, but eagle-eyed fans know that Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Daisy Ridley posted an Instagram picture that teased that she recently teamed up with Streisand for a project.
The upcoming album will be Barbra Streisand’s 35th studio album and third Broadway-focused release. Streisand’s previous Broadway-inspired album, 1985’s fittingly titled The Broadway Album, was one of her biggest sellers and in 1994, she released Back to Broadway. Barbra also has two Tony Award nominations to her name from her early days in musical theater back in the 1960s.
Barbra Streisand is known for her chart-topping duets. Her 2014 album, Partners, featured the music legend trading lyrics with fellow icons Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Michael Buble, John Legend, Andrea Bocelli, Lionel Richie and even Elvis Presley, whom she was paired with courtesy of a classic recording of The King. In the past, Streisand has also performed duets with Barry Manilow, Frank Sinatra, Bryan Adams and the Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb. One of Barbra’s biggest duets came in 1978 with Neil Diamond on the song “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj10EzNKA2M
Barbra also made beautiful music with Kris Kristofferson on the song “Evergreen” from their smash 1976 movie A Star is Born. Indeed, duets are Barbra Streisand’s thing and no singer has done more of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3gQuu2lgGM
But one of Streisand’s biggest duets was an early one. In an interview with NPR, Barbra looked back on her famous duet with Judy Garland more than 50 years ago.
Streisand’s appearance on The Judy Garland Show came in 1963, the same year that she released her first—and ultimately Grammy-winning— Barbra Streisand Album. Streisand, then 21, received an Emmy nomination for the appearance, which had her dueting “Happy Days/Get Happy ” with a 41-year-old Garland. Later, Ethel Merman joined them onstage to sing “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”
“She was holding my hand and I thought, ‘Gee, she seems nervous,'” Streisand said of Garland. “At that time, I wasn’t nervous. I was still very young… and now, when I think back on it, I think, ‘Oh, my God, I know exactly what she’s feeling’… Part of me is much more relaxed than I’ve ever been, less frightened, less anxious. On the other hand, it’s a coming-of-age-thing… I just understand the anxiety even though in a sense I’m calmer. It’s a dichotomy. You wonder, ‘Well, do I give it up? Do I retire? Or do I get more in before my time is up?'”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7AViKc52P0
Streisand has chosen to do the latter. In addition to her new album, Barbra Streisand will embark on a rare nine-city concert tour, which will include dates in her Brooklyn hometown as well as Las Vegas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and even a trek to Toronto. Streisand has not toured 2012 and her rare live shows have always been few and far between.
Indeed, Barbra Streisand is a living legend and she has some unique bragging rights. Billboard reports that Streisand is the only artist to score No. 1 albums on the Billboard charts in six separate decades. Will she go for seven?
Tickets for Barbra Streisand’s upcoming shows go on sale May 25, with American Express card cardholders getting pre-sale privileges. As a bonus, online ticket buyers get a free copy of Streisand’s Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway CD after it is released later this year.
[Photo by Jeff Fusco/Getty Images]
