Barbra's Back! A Star Is Reborn

The Funny Girl Faces Her Stage Fright

- Tony Powell

On July 7, a 77-year-old star was reborn when Barbra Streisand once more hit her high notes in front of a sell-out audience at London’s Hyde Park.

A-list guests joined her for duets, but the songstress did the heavy vocal lifting – overcoming the stage fright that ruled out live performances for almost two decades.

“I need the vulnerability to balance the part of me that’s secure,” Barbra says. “Every once in a while, I think, ‘Do you think you can do that?’ You have to have self-doubt. It’s what motivates you.

“I never sing unless I have to,” she continues. “I don’t sing around the house. Singing is like work to me, it’s professional. It’s something I do. It’s not cathartic – it’s the opposite.”

But she practises a lot – the sound check before her London show took three hours. And she does enjoy studio sessions. “I love recording, putting on headphones and singing to the music. It’s all about the music.”

The fear of singing in public stems from a disastrous 1967 performance in New York’s Central Park where, in front of 150,000 people, she forgot the lyrics to several songs. Aside from a few small charity and Democratic Party appearances, Barbra didn’t appear on stage again until 1993, when she was persuaded to take a residency in Las Vegas.

Even so, she’s done fewer than 100 concerts in her long career. “It’s a challenge every time,” she tells. “Everybody uses teleprompters now for the lyrics, so I’m not afraid of that.”