Nowadays, younger people are starting to show more interest in jazz and older pop music. Most of this interest is developed through covers by more recent artists, but I think it’s a great way for them to start learning about the very artists who developed the music industry.
One of them is Barbra Streisand. I covered her rendition of Here’s to Life in my debut album Yesterday Once More, and she’s a profound artist with a successful acting career as well. Some of her best songs include The Way We Were, Woman in Love, Evergreen, and No More Tears.
Films and Awards
She started her acting career in the 1970s after creating amazing music in the 1960s. One of her best films includes Funny Girl, in which she plays comedian Fanny Brice. For Funny Girl, Barbra Streisand won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.
Some of her other amazing films include The Way We Were and The Owl and the Pussycat. But most importantly, she started in the second rendition of A Star is Born, and won a second academy award for it.
In 1983, she starred in the film Yentl, for which she was the first woman to star, direct, produce, and write a major studio film. Yentl won a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical and an Oscar award for Best Score. Barbra Streisand won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, making her the first and yet to be dethroned woman to receive the title.
Barbra Streisand has received multiple awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, four Peabody Awards, a Kennedy Center Honors Prize, a Special Tony Award, and five Emmy Awards. She’s one of the few artists in the industry to have won all four – a Tony, Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy Award.
Not to mention, she also holds a position among the best-selling recording artists. She’s the best-selling female artist appreciated by the Recording Industry Association of America.
She’s Popular with the Younger Audience
Unlike other popular artists and actors from the 1970s, Streisand is still garnering attention among younger fans and audiences. Although one may think it’s because of how many awards she has won, I’ve found out that it’s mainly due to her roles in films like A Star is Born, which was recently released with Lady Gaga as the female lead.
After having found out that the film wasn’t the first version of the story, a lot of younger fans wanted to see what the previous films looked like and what story they followed. Even younger fans show appreciation for her dedicated performances.
Let’s not forget that she also performed alongside Ariana Grande recently by pairing up for a secret duet in Chicago. They both performed the hit 1979 disco song ‘No More Tears’. She definitely got Ariana Grande fans excited when Grande surprised everyone by showing up on stage. I definitely think she’s a great inspiration for all the younger artists out there who have ideas and want to share them with the world.
Want to hear my rendition of Barbra's songs? Click to tune in to my album: http://bit.ly/maggysimonsings
With Love, Maggy