Barbra Streisand is one of the most popular all-around performers of the 20th century and is one of the most powerful women in the entertainment industry. She has sold millions of movie tickets, starred on stage, screen and TV and has been awarded numerous Tony, Grammy, Emmy and Academy Awards. Streisand has sold more albums than any other female performer -- and more albums over all than any other musical act except for the Beatles and Elvis Presley.
Streisand was born on April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, N.Y. and became a nightclub singer in New York during the early 1960s. She broke into the music through a prominent singing part in the 1962 Broadway show I Can Get It For You Wholesale. Signing to Columbia, Streisand released her debut album, The Barbra Streisand Album in 1963; it quickly reached the Top 10 and went gold, leading to The Second Album and The Third Album, issued within the year. In 1964 Streisand returned to Broadway in Funny Girl, which led to her next album, People, containing the Top 10 title single drawn from the play. Streisand was now a bona fide star.
Throughout the late 1960s, Streisand's following expanded through more albums of traditional pop, more Broadway appearances, and a TV series called "My Name Is Barbra." By 1967 Streisand had broken into film, appearing in an adaptation of Funny Girl, for which she won an Academy Award. After a period of obscurity, Streisand staged a comeback with Stoney End, whose title single reached the Top 10. Over the next decade she expanded her following with No. 1 singles like "The Way We Were," "Evergreen," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (a duet with Neil Diamond), and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)," a duet with Donna Summer. In 1980 Streisand scored her biggest seller to date with Guilty, produced by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees; it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide to date.
Streisand's movie directing credits include 1983's Yentl, 1991's Prince of Tides and 1996's The Mirror Has Two Faces.
After a more than 20-year break from live performances, Streisand returned to the stage in 1994, making tickets to her rare performances some of the hottest around. Her return to performing was captured on the live album, The Concert, which broke into the Top 10 and went platinum.
Streisand's 54th album, Higher Ground, was released on Columbia in November 1997.
