It’s official: Barbra Streisand is the reigning diva of the music industry, as her latest album Partners has just made her the only female artist to have a number one album sold in each of the last six decades. Take that, Cher.
The new album consists of 12 songs, all duets with 12 male singers. The list of singers include Michael Bublé, Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Lionel Richie, Andrea Bocelli, John Legend and Josh Groban.
“It was a great idea,” Streisand said in an interview with Jian Ghomeshi, reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. ”You know, instead of having to look for 12 new songs, my producers felt like I could do a good job revisiting a lot of the standards I’d done, but with a new twist as a duet.”
When the album was released earlier this month, Streisand beat Chris Brown to the number one spot by selling a total of 196,000 copies by Sept. 21, according to Billboard.com. What’s even more impressive is that this is her 10th number one album.
There’s something to be said about a successful women in today’s world. The fact that this wasn’t her first rodeo but her 10th, shows just how much people enjoy her work.
According to Biography.com, Streisand’s singing career began when she moved to Manhattan, N.Y., in 1960 and got a job as a cabaret singer, which led to her getting attention from record companies. The result: a recording contract and several successful albums.
One may wonder why she isn’t performing live concerts more often if she is so successful. The reason behind that, Biography.com says, is that Streisand avoids live performances due to stage fright that she believes stems from her concert in 1967 in New York Central Park where she forgot the lyrics to one of her songs.
As a result, according to Biography.com, she did not perform live on stage for 27 years until 1994. That year, a concert she did landed in the top 10 and the tour made over $10 million to donate to charities such as AIDS organizations, women and children in crisis and relations between Jewish and Arabic peoples.
Her humanity and vulnerability doesn’t limit itself there. Even she sometimes doubts her singing ability.
“Every once in a while I get insecure and think, ‘Do I think I can do that?’” Streisand said in the interview with Ghomeshi. “I think it’s good to have a bit of self doubt in the equation of what makes somebody successful. It’s what motivates you.”
Perhaps that is the reason behind her success or her “undisciplined” lifestyle as a child, as she also discussed in the interview with Ghomeshi. Or perhaps she is not afraid to take a chance and not afraid of criticism, only irked by untruthfulness. Either way, Streisand continues to make history.
An extra bit of Streisand trivia is that the song “Evergreen,” from the 1976 film “A Star Is Born” was filmed in several locations here in Tucson, such as downtown Tucson and the Tucson Community Center.
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Follow Ivana Goldtooth on Twitter @goldiechick93
