American singer, actress and filmmaker Barbara Joan Streisand was born 82 years ago in Brooklyn, New York City, is married and has a son.
As a kid, she liked to sing and was known as ‘the girl with the good voice’ in her neighbourhood. In spite of this, however, her main aim was to become an actress and at school participated in a couple of stage plays. During her teens, Barbra’s dream became stronger and she spent a lot of time studying several stage actresses’ biographies and acting theories, plus reading plays and novels.
Whilst still attending school, she managed to get a night job as a backstage helper in a theatre. Once graduated, Barbra found a theatre usher job and whilst there, auditioned for a singer in a play but was not chosen. Albeit, she was encouraged to show her singing talent and requested her then-boyfriend to record her singing and she went on to participate in a contest and won it.
Streisand’s career took off in 1960 after she auditioned for a night club and commenced singing professionally there. She soon started gaining popularity and realised that she still had the opportunity to fulfil her dream of becoming an actress. In fact, shortly afterwards, Barbra got a role in a theatrical play and at the same time worked in a more renowned night club, plus appearing on various TV shows and thus becoming more and more famous over the course of the years.
During her +60-year career, Barbra had no less than 83 albums (52 gold and 31 platinum certified, out of which 14 are multi-platinum), 24 music videos and 117 singles. With global sales of more 150 million records, she is considered to be one of the best-selling record artists ever and claimed to be the second best-selling album female artist in the US. Some of her most popular tracks which peaked to number one on the US charts include ‘The Way we Were’, ‘Evergreen’, ‘You Don’t bring me Flowers’, ‘No more Tears (Enough is Enough)’ and the number one worldwide hit ‘Woman in Love’.
Streisand is an avid philanthropist and in 1986, she created The Streisand Foundation and has made huge donations to aid numerous charitable organisations. She was also involved in politics and has even published an autobiography.
Barbra has received an impressive 124 awards out of 206 nominations. These include 10 Grammy, 9 Golden Globes, 5 Emmy, 4 Peabody and 2 Academy, amongst many other awards and honours.
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