Barbra Streisand finds 'The Secret of Life' on her new album

Barbra Streisand was worried. She had just spent six days a week for six weeks recording the audiobook version of her 2023 memoir "My Name is Barbra” — which became more than 48 hours of discussing her storied, EGOT-winning career and the unexpected life that came with it. But now, it was time to record a new album with a stunning lineup of duet partners that ranged from current hitmakers Hozier and Sam Smith to legends Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and James Taylor. And when producers played the songs for her, she couldn't sing along. Her mighty voice would just squeak.

- 

“My voice was shot,” Streisand, 83, told The Associated Press, calling from her home in Malibu, California. “I mean, I literally prayed to God in front of that microphone, ‘Let my voice be there for me.’ And I don't know how, but it was there.”

Fans will be able to hear that for themselves on Friday, when her album “The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2” arrives in stores and on streaming services. And despite her misgivings, Streisand shows she can still deliver the performances she wants, while also coaxing them out of others. Her duet with Dylan had been decades in the making. In 1970, Dylan sent Streisand a bouquet of flowers and a note — written in what she believes was crayon — asking, “Would you sing with me?”