Pop music is full of young divas these days, but currently on tour is the mother of them all, Barbra Streisand. Before there was Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey or Madonna, there was Babs, a one-woman entertainment juggernaut who's been calling her own shots, speaking her mind and throwing the occasional hissy fit during a career that's lasted more than 40 years. Streisand, who performs Monday and Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, started out as a Broadway actress in the early 1960s but now ranks as the top-selling female artist in U.
S. history with 71 million albums sold, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Along the way, she conquered television (with numerous performance specials), broke into the movies as both a star and a director, and even became a financial force in politics.
Over the years, she's changed husbands and hairstyles, but Streisand has always seemed in complete control of her career. In many ways, she is the ultimate role model for any female pop singer hoping to become a multimedia star and successful businesswoman. Though she was born Barbara (on April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn), the singer early on dropped one "a" to become Barbra.
There's value in a memorable moniker, as Cher, Madonna and "Xtina" Aguilera can attest. Streisand's 1962 Broadway role in "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" led to a record deal with Columbia that helped launch her singing career. Her debut, "The Barbra Streisand Album," won two Grammys.
But she not only kept treading the boards (in the Broadway hit "Funny Girl"), she tackled the small screen, starring in numerous television specials - most notably the landmark "My Name Is Barbra" - all of which helped make her a household name. Initially, Streisand played ambitious entertainers much like herself in 1968's "Funny Girl" (winning a best actress Oscar) and 1976's "A Star Is Born" (best song Oscar). Later, she tackled more complex roles, including an unstable prostitute in "Nuts" and a dowdy professor in "The Mirror Has Two Faces.
" Aside from Cher and Bette Midler, most divas haven't fared as well: Witness disappointments from Britney Spears ("Crossroads"), Mariah Carey ("Glitter") and Madonna (too many to mention). Streisand surprised nearly everyone when she directed, produced, wrote and starred in the musical film "Yentl" in 1983. The movie earned $40 million, but at Oscar time Streisand received not a single nomination.
Many suspected sexism, but the film nevertheless established her as a creative force rather than just a talented player. Few other divas have managed such a feat, though Midler and Madonna have both dabbled in film producing. One of Streisand's first performances was at a gay West Village nightclub in 1960, but she's since been somewhat closeted about her gay fan base.
By contrast, Midler honed her live act at a gay New York bathhouse, and Cher visited gay clubs around the country to support her 1998 disco hit "Believe." Madonna embraced pretty much all persuasions in her 1992 photography book, "Sex." As it turns out, Babs' son, Jason Gould, announced that he's gay.
Today's artists like to do "mash-ups" and "features" on other people's songs, but back in the day they were called "duets." Streisand scored a massive hit with Neil Diamond ("You Don't Bring Me Flowers") and chased the disco trend with Donna Summer on "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)." Her 1980 album with Barry Gibb, "Guilty," was a smash; they reteamed last year for "Guilty Pleasures" (Sony), which debuted at No.
5 on the Billboard chart. In the early '70s, Streisand began seeing an ambitious hairdresser named Jon Peters who ended up producing "A Star Is Born." It's a diva tradition: Carey married her label boss and producer Tommy Mottola, and Madonna dated Warren Beatty, who produced their movie "Dick Tracy.
" (Babs and Beatty also reportedly dated. Coincidence?) She's no Fiona Apple, but Babs has had her moments.
She's known to suffer from stage fright, which often keeps her out of the public eye: Set to sing at the 2001 Emmys, she asked organizers to keep her appearance a surprise "because I might get cold feet." More recently, Streisand filed a $10-million lawsuit against a conservation group that took aerial photographs of the California coastline - seems her Malibu home appeared in the pictures. A judge threw out the case.
Even the usually modest Babs has revealed a bit of herself. In her 1984 music video "Left in the Dark," she appears in a dress (or something) that starts well below the shoulders and ends far above the knees; later, she's seen singing in a nightclub and showing plenty of thigh. She also filmed a topless scene for "The Owl and the Pussycat" (1970) on the condition that she could opt to kill it - which she did.
Barbra Streisand plays Monday and Wednesday at 8 p.m., Madi- son Square Garden, Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street, Manhattan, 212-465-6741.
Tickets $104.50-$754.50.
Il Divo opens.
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