Streisand raises her voice
Netflix special covers her career highlights.
“We are going through a very intense period here politically. So I’m so happy that the issues are coming out into the light. That truth is trying to get out of the mud.” Barbra Streisand on the sexual harassment debate
Barbra Streisand has been known to use her Grammy-winning voice for more than just singing.
The singing/acting/directing legend told USA TODAY she can’t help being vocal when it comes to politics.
“Otherwise, I’d drown in candy and my ice cream habit,” she jokes.
In a phone interview ahead of her new Netflix special, Streisand, 75, reflected on the sexual harassment scandals wracking Hollywood, the media and other institutions.
“We are going through a very intense period here politically,” she says. “So I’m so happy that the issues are coming out into the light. That truth is trying to get out of the mud.”
The star also touches on politics in Barbra: The Music ... The Mem’ries ...
The Magic! (out Wednesday).
The special, which feels like a musical documentary of her journey to stardom, acts as a career-highlighting concert experience from her December tour stop in Miami, featuring songs from each of her No. 1 albums from the past six decades, including The Way We Were and Evergreen.
How has the two-time Oscar winner sustained such a long career?
“I take a lot of time off,” she jokes, referring to the 27-year break she took from performing live after a performance in New York’s Central Park in which she she forgot the lyrics to one of her songs.
“I was nervous and ... I could see the camera go out and I thought, “Oh my God, are they capturing the show?’ ” she says. “It just changed me — the fear of
forgetting the words really left a bad imprint on my brain.”
Although Streisand says it was a challenge to get over her fear and perform again, her special makes it seem as though she never left the stage — hitting the audience with jokes and funny anecdotes during song transitions, then regaining the intensity to perform passionate songs like Papa, Can You Hear Me? from her 1983 film
Yentl (in which she directed and starred).
Directed by Streisand and Jim Gable, the show also features behindthe-scenes clips and a duet of Climb
Ev’ry Mountain with actor Jamie Foxx. Streisand found a willing partner in Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, who she says was interested in the project after she mentioned it to him at a dinner party. Aside from a few requests from the streaming service, Streisand says, she had creative control over the project.
“They’re so wonderful to work for, because they don’t interfere with the artist’s work,” she says. “They never saw it until i handed it in … it’s amazing.”