Celebrating Over A Decade Of Reporting. Direct from reliable sources.
**Email your 'tips and photos' to barbranews at aol dot com**

***
Click to visit the Streisand Store!

***
For the most timely approved/official updates on Barbra -- click for the official website


BarbraNews Mailing List
If you'd like important STREISAND updates to your mailbox, sign up here.
Name:
Email:
Subscribe  Unsubscribe 

Sunday 26 April 2009

New Streisand DVD Set #1 on Amazon.com!

You may be pleased to know that the concert DVD set has rocketed to Number One on Amazon.com today!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VB8UAE?ie=UTF8&tag=barbranewsc02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B001VB8UAE

Also -- the CD version (Columbia Records 2007) has shot into the top ten in numerous categories on Amazon. Not bad for a 2 year old album!

Friday 24 April 2009

New Barbra Video

Barbra talks about the new concert DVD...

http://www.barbrastreisand.com/index.php?page=news&n_id=1218

Wednesday 22 April 2009

Wish Barbra A Happy Birthday

Click on the following link for more:

http://www.barbrastreisand.com/index.php?page=news&n_id=1217

Craig

Wednesday 15 April 2009

Diana Krall talks Barbra...

As most of you will know, Barbra has recently been working on her new album with Diana Krall.

Well, Diana has just released her new album, and has been doing a lot of press.

Here's some quotes that I've grabbed from various sources. Please note, some of these quotes contain spoilers about the songs that Barbra has recorded.

Canwest News Service:

"We were two very headstrong artists who didn't always agree, but after the disagreement, we'd laugh and play cards," Krall says. "There is that challenge -- you find a middle ground that works for both of you."

Reuters:

Ahead of the release of Quiet Nights, Krall had been working on producing an album of standards for singing legend Streisand and playing piano on some of the record's tracks."She's directed and she's a very, very strong woman," she said of Streisand. "You want to give her something that is what she wants, but also a little different. But that's probably why she called me."

CNN:

CNN: You've been producing Barbara Streisand's new album. What has that been like?

Krall: Incredible. I just am so thrilled with her performance on this album. [She gives] one of the most incredible performances I think of her career on a song called "You Must Believe in Spring" with a great pianist from New York named Phil Charlap. It's just piano and voice and it's so incredibly stunning. She said to me, "Maybe it needs some strings or something." I said "Don't touch it! Just leave it! It's gorgeous!"It's been great working artist to artist and we had a lot of fun. We played cards. So when there were moments in the studio where there was something technical that had to be fixed, we'd deal the cards and we'd play gin rummy, which I'm lousy at. Thank goodness.

CNN: This is the first album you've produced for another artist. Way to choose somebody really small to start off with.

Krall: She chose me! I had a few phone calls and it was a little daunting, but it was a great experience and really, really intense, as you would expect it to be.

Winnipeg Sun:

Diana Krall found herself not only producing Barbra Streisand's new album from last November until this February but also playing piano on the disc which still doesn't have a title or release date.

The two women met ten years ago and when the Nanaimo, B.C., singer became pregnant more recently (her twins are now two and a half years old), Streisand called to say she was getting ready to tour again and needed "some songs to be inspired by."

"And so I sent her some CDs and sent her some music and her manager and her main guy from Columbia, Jay Landers, I think encouraged her and called my management a couple of times," said Krall. "And then we had a meeting about it. And I said, 'Are you interested in doing a record the way I make records? Because this is the only way I know how to make records is we do it pretty much live.' And she was like, 'Yeah, absolutely.' "

Krall said they started listening to music together at Streisand's house and Barbra -- who is a fan of such jazz greats as Shirley Horn and Nancy Wilson -- wound up recording songs like Here's to Life, Where do You Start, Love Dance, and You Must Believe in Spring.

"She did a couple of songs just with piano which I think are just brilliant. And my job is to make sure she's happy and comfortable and inspired in what she's doing. That I'm not taking her out of something that's so far from (her) reality. I'm trying to just like strip things down a little bit."

And while Streisand lived up to her reputation -- "she is tough, she is a perfectionist, all true," said Krall -- the two women had a grand time together both in and out of the studio.

"One of my favourite moments with her was when we played cards," said Krall. "We playing gin rummy together in the studio. We had been planning on playing cards at her house but so far we've watched movies there and things like that."

Still, it seems a shame that they never wound up recording a duet together.

"We were planning on a duet, we were trying to find the right tune, and our schedules are so insane that I don't know when we can find a moment to do that, if we can, then we will, but I don't think it's necessary. I think it's her album. I don't have to be singing on it. And I know some people will say, 'Well, that's not right.' But it's a beautiful album and it's about her."

USA Today:

"This is someone who has done everything," Krall says. "So being in the producer's chair, I really had to make sure that I could give her something a little different." Krall describes the resulting disc, expected later this year, as "a really honest, beautiful record, with a very organic feel. There's one song with just a piano and her voice that is absolutely stunning."
Streisand and Krall also bonded "as two women working together. She loves architecture and design, and we'd talk about that, and about our experiences. We were girly-girls, too, talking about clothes, telling funny stories. And we played cards! So if there was ever a technical problem, we'd break out a deck and play hands of rummy."

Chatelaine:

M: You’ve also recently worked with Barbra Streisand. [Krall is producing Streisand’s new album, due later this year. The relationship between the two women formed in 2006, when Krall was pregnant and Streisand “came to some of my gigs and mentioned that she needed inspiration for her tour,” says Krall. “So I started sending her CDs.”] What can we expect from the final result?

D: It’s a really beautiful record. We’ve chosen different songs for her, a combination of standards and bossa nova, plus some very challenging adult songs and she’s really passionate about them. She worked so hard. We wanted to find songs that were art-meets-commercial, that mean something to her, that tell a story about a woman who is her age, and I think that was accomplished. It’s been quite an extraordinary thing to be part of, and I’m learning a lot.

M: Do you sing with her on this?

D: No. We couldn’t find the right tune and we’re still thinking of that, trying to find the right one.

Thursday 9 April 2009

Press Release -- Streisand The Concerts

Press Release -- Streisand The Concerts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BARBRA STREISAND 3-DISC DVD SET- Streisand The Concerts
AVAILABLE APRIL 28TH

Includes Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Footage, Unforgettable Performances and Bonus Features

The Ultimate Mother’s Day Gift to Make Any Mom Sing with Delight

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THIS EXCITING SET

STREISAND: LIVE IN CONCERT Airing Saturday, April 25 on CBS, Fans will get an All-Access Pass to One of Barbra’s Most Memorable Performances from Streisand The Concerts
(NEW YORK) - (April 8, 2009) – Barbra Streisand is world renowned for thrilling audiences with her magical performances, her supreme vocal talent and setting box office records. Now fans can get front row seats to the best of Barbra Streisand captured in Streisand The Concerts, a new 3-disc DVD showcasing some of her most memorable concerts, special exclusives including 17 songs never-before released on DVD and behind-the-scenes moments with one of the most beloved artists of all time.

This highly anticipated triple-DVD set will be released in the U.S. on April 28 through Hip-O/Universal Music Enterprises arriving just in time to be shared with loved ones on Mother’s Day.

Streisand The Concerts shot to the top of the UK charts to become the #1 selling music DVD just days after its release on March 16. In celebration of its U.S. release, STREISAND: LIVE IN CONCERT will air as a one-hour special on CBS, Saturday, April 25 (8:00-9:00 pm ET/PT) to bring fans one of Barbra’s most celebrated concerts on her 2006 North American tour. The 3-Disc DVD set offers fans an all access pass to two of her most memorable concerts in their entirety.

Disc #1 captures the record-breaking, 2006 North American tour from the sold-out Ft. Lauderdale show, with special guest multi-platinum recording artist, Il Divo. Fans will get a chance to experience 10 songs never-before-seen on DVD, including "Unusual Way," "A Cockeyed Optimist," "When The Sun Comes Out" and "My Shining Hour," all of which are the first time Streisand has ever performed them either in the studio or live. Bonus features include five additional songs as well as interviews with the behind-the-scenes team who create and execute this musical and visually explosive experience.

Disc #2 allows fans to experience the unforgettable 1994 concert Live at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA that documents the magic of her first concert tour in 27 years. For the first time on DVD, this special concert includes the first-ever live performance of "Lazy Afternoon" and the "Yentl Medley."

Throughout her career critics have been unanimous in their praise for Streisand making this DVD a remarkable compilation. Her 2006 world tour garnered rave reviews across the nation."Streisand has never sounded better!

She’s astounding!" - The New York Times"

The blend of intimacy and showiness in Streisand’s voice turns her performances into portraits of the heart and mind in self-discovery…she was simply amazing" - LA Times

"Once or twice a generation there comes a personality that just fills the room. Sinatra was like that, so was Elvis and so is Barbra Streisand." - Journal Sentine

l"Her singing glows with a tone so luxurious and a texture so rich, you nearly want to burst into song yourself." - New York Daily News

"Sensational! A brilliant show! A major musical triumph!" – Rolling Stone

Disc #3, "Putting It Together: The Making of the Broadway Album," is the perfect supplement to the DVD set's presentation of the two great Streisand concerts of the past 15 years. With video and vintage performance footage from the ’60s and ’70s never before seen on DVD, disc #3 captures the most sensational recording and concert career of all time. The disc, which book-ends the fabled stylist in her growth over a nearly half century span, showcases the electric voice and personality that instantly shot her to stardom beginning in the 1960s and solidified her unchallenged supremacy among female performing artists. Bonus features include video performances from Streisand’s Emmy award winning television specials including "People" from My Name Is Barbra 1965 , "Yesterdays" from Color Me Barbra 1966, "I’m Always Chasing Rainbows" from The Belle of 14th Street 1967, "Silent Night (Sleep In Heavenly Peace) from A Happening In Central Park 1968 and "Cryin’ Time (with Ray Charles)" from Barbra Streisand…And Other Musical Instruments 1973.

Disc #3 is jam-packed with exclusive, behind-the-scenes footage including the making of the award winning, number #1 album The Broadway Album and video clips from her childhood, extensive one-on-one interviews and a montage of the numerous awards she’s received throughout the years. Streisand The Concerts is an extraordinary collection of the very best moments and highlights from Barbra Streisand’s legendary career and includes more than 60 songs spanning classics such as "Funny Girl," "The Way We Were," and "People," as well as never before performed "The Music of the Night," and "Somewhere" with Il Divo.

Barbra Streisand is the music industry's #1 best-selling female artist with 50 Gold, 30 Platinum and 13 Multi-Platinum albums to her credit. She is second in the all-time charts, ahead of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, exceeded only by Elvis. She continues to be the highest album-selling female recording artist ever, with 29 having achieved top ten status. Streisand remains the only artist to receive Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, and Peabody Awards, and the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. Streisand The Concerts is distributed worldwide by Live Nation and S2BN Entertainment.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THIS EXCITING SET

Saturday 4 April 2009

“Yentl” To Kick Off Stanley Kramer Theatre / Sunset Studios “Films That Changed The World” Screening Series

For Immediate Release:

Barbra Streisand’s initial directorial effort, “Yentl,” has been selected as the first motion picture to be honored in a screening series to be dedicated to “Films That Changed The World,” it was announced by series creator, Kat Kramer, of behalf of the Stanley Kramer Theatre and Sunset – Gower Studios. “The history-making film, first major studio production ever produced, directed and co-written by it’s female star, shattered Hollywood’s glass ceiling like no other film ever did. It is the perfect example of what this screening series is designed to celebrate,” Kramer stated, who is carrying on the legacy of her socially-conscious father.

The series will kick off with a special showing of the Streisand film on the afternoon of Saturday April 18 at the newly renovated Stanley Kramer Theatre on the Sunset Gower lot. Guest speaker will be Marilyn Bergman, Streisand’s longtime friend and Academy-Award-winning lyricist for “Yentl” together with her husband Alan Bergman. Bergman will address the obstacles Streisand had to overcome to make “Yentl,” a film for which the star won Golden Globes for both Best director and as Producer of the Best Film, and which earned five Oscar nominations.

The afternoon festivities, to be attended by an exclusive invitational list of top female achievers in film, and leading activists in causes relating to the rights and well-being of women, will begin with a 2 p.m. tea party, Bergman’s keynote speech, and discussion of how the Streisand film has impacted feminist causes.

Representatives from the ENOUGH Project and RAISE HOPE FOR CONGO to Protect and Empower Congo’s Women campaign will be in attendance. A board of Director’s for the new screening series is currently being formed.

“Yentl,” a romantic drama with music, is about a courageous woman who refuses to accept societal limitations, celebrating women trying to fulfill their capabilities, not allowing traditional restrictions to deter them. The film has just been released by Fox home Entertainment in a two disc edition celebrating the motion pictures 25th anniversary and including the widescreen theatrical cut, the director’s extended cut, and special features from Ms. Streisand’s personal achieves, including songs and scenes not comprehended in the final film as well as an introduction and commentary by her.

BarbraNews Shop + Review of 2006 Tour.

USA * Canada * UK/Europe
Click here for the European Tour Website from 2007
Click here to read our SPECIAL review of the 2006 Tour -- Excellent pictures.