Look up clear in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Clear may refer to:

Media[link]

• Clear (visual novel), an adult Japanese visual novel

Music[link]

• "Clear", a song from the 2007 Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus album Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus
• "Clear!", a 2009 single from the Kardinal Offishall album Mr. International
• Clear (band), a vegan straight edge hardcore group from Utah
• Clear (Bomb the Bass album), a 1995 album by Bomb the Bass
• Clear (Christian band), an American CCM group from Cambridge, Minnesota
• Clear Entertainment (also C.E. Music), a record label owned by Worldwide Pants Incorporated
• "Clear" (song), a 1983 single from the Cybotron album Clear
• Clear (Spirit album), a 1969 album by Spirit

Technology[link]

• Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting, a system of relational databases used by the Chicago Police Department
• Clearwire, wireless internet service products provided in the United States, Belgium, and Spain marketed as CLEAR
• CLEAR Framework for Enterprise Architecture, an Enterprise Architecture meta-model
• Unknown extension tag "syntaxhighlight" (Unix), a standard Unix computer operating system command which is used to clear the screen

Other[link]

• Cannabis Law Reform (CLEAR), a United Kingdom political party which campaigns against cannabis prohibition
• Clear, an airport registered traveler program
• Clear, Alaska is an unincorporated community in Denali Borough, Alaska, United States
• Clear (Scientology), one of two levels a practitioner can achieve on the way to personal salvation
• Tetrahydrogestrinone (also "The Clear"), an anabolic steroid developed by Patrick Arnold

See also[link]

• Claro (surname)
• Clear channel (disambiguation)
• Clearance (disambiguation)
• Clearing (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Kardinal Offishall
Kardinal Offishall at eTalk in 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Jason D. Harrow
Born	(1976-05-12) May 12, 1976 (age 36)
Origin	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Canadian hip hop, Dancehall
Occupations	Rapper, songwriter, record producer
Years active	1994-present
Labels	MCA Records, Kon Live Distribution, Geffen Records, Konvict
Associated acts	Akon, Black Jays, Sean Paul, Colby O'Donis, Rihanna, 50 Cent, T-Pain, Nottz

Jason D. Harrow^[1] (born May 12, 1976),^[2] better known by his stage name Kardinal Offishall ( /kɑrdɨˈnæl oʊfɨˈʃæl/),^[3] is a Canadian rapper and record producer. He is often credited as Canada's "hip-hop ambassador", and is best known for his distinctive reggae and dancehall-influenced style of hip-hop.^[4][5]

In 1997, Kardinal released his debut album, Eye & I, on independent label Capitol Hill Music, to critical acclaim.^[6] In 2000, he released the EP, Husslin', also independently on Figure IV Entertainment, which helped establish him as one of Canada's best hip-hop producers.^[7][8] The same year, Kardinal signed with major label MCA Records, and released his second album Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1 in 2001. The lead single, "BaKardi Slang", became his first single to appear on a U.S. Billboard chart.^[9] After releasing the single "Belly Dancer" in 2003, he left MCA Records after it was absorbed by Geffen Records.^[10]

In 2005, Kardinal released his third album, Fire and Glory, on the Canadian division of Virgin Records.^[8] The single "Everyday (Rudebwoy)" became a top twenty hit in Canada. In 2008, his fourth album Not 4 Sale was released on Kon Live Distribution, a subsidiary of Geffen Records. The album was a critical success, spawning the hit single "Dangerous".^[8] The single was his first to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number five.^[9] Kardinal will release his fifth album—his second under Kon Live Distribution—Mr. International in 2012.

Biography[link]

Early life and career beginnings[link]

Harrow was born in Scarborough, Ontario,^[11][12] in Toronto's east end, and raised by Jamaican immigrant parents. From the ages of 2 to 13, he lived in the city's Flemingdon Park neighbourhood. He moved back to Scarborough for two years, before finally settling in Oakwood–Vaughan, in the city's west end.^[13][14][15] While in high school, he would throw parties at the Alexandra Park Community Centre.^[14] He also is a former York University student but did not complete his degree.^[16]

He started rapping at the age of eight and was winning competitions by the time he was 12. Also at the age of 12, he performed live and on stage for the first time, with Nelson Mandela in attendance during Mandela's first visit to Toronto.^[8] By 1993, he decided to change his alias "KoolAid", and went by the moniker "Kardinal Offishall" after being inspired by the great 17th century French politician Cardinal Richelieu.^[17]

[edit] 1996-1999: Eye & I

Kardinal was signed to a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music Canada at the age of 20.^{[citation needed]} In 1996, he released his first single "Naughty Dread", which was featured on the Rap Essentials Volume One compilation and earned him a Juno Award nomination for Best Rap Recording. In 1997, Kardinal released his debut album Eye & I on Capitol Hill Music. The only single from the album, "On wit da Show", had considerable video play on MuchMusic. The album received rave reviews from music critics.^[18][19] Allmusic stated that Kardinal "blended soul, dancehall, reggae, hip-hop, and a wholly inventive approach to beats on his 20-track debut album, Eye & I."^[20] Unfortunately, the album was poorly distributed in Canada, and a lack of radio support resulted in the album receiving limited commercial attention.^[18][21] Over 4,000 copies of the album were sold in its first three months of release.^[8] In 1998, he was featured on the Juno-winning single "Northern Touch" with the Rascalz, Choclair, Checkmate and Thrust.

[edit] 2000-2003: Husslin' and Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1

Husslin' was an EP, released April 11, 2000. It was released independently on Figure IV Entertainment and distributed by Fat Beats Records in the United States. The title track, "Husslin'", was one of the hottest 12" singles of 2000.^[22] "And What?", featuring Saukrates, was released as a single in 1999. "Husslin'" and "Mic T.H.U.G.S." also appear on Kardinal's second studio album, Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1. An updated version of "U R Ghetto When", known as "U R Ghetto 2002", is on the Quest for Fire album. In 2000, Kardinal signed with MCA Records. He released the album Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1 in 2001, which spawned the hits "BaKardi Slang" and "Ol' Time Killin'".One year after its release, 25,000 copies of the album were sold in Canada.^[23] It received generally favorable reviews from music critics. The Source gave the album 3½ out of 5 mics.^[23] RapReviews.com gave it a 7/10 rating, calling it a "mixed bag," and stating "there are also some perfect 10's to be found here."^[24] The A.V. Club gave the album a favorable review, praising it's "impressive musical and lyrical consistency."^[25] Allmusic gave it 2½ out of 5 stars, noting that Kardinal "displays only flashes of promise here."^[26] The album was nominated for Best Rap Recording at the 2002 Juno Awards.

After MCA folded in 2003, Kardinal's highly anticipated follow up album Firestarter Vol. 2: The F-Word Theory was shelved along with the single/video for "Belly Dancer" featuring Pharrell, and Kardinal eventually found himself without a label. Had the album been released, there would have been production from Timbaland and The Neptunes, among others. He released an independent mixtape titled Kill Bloodclott Bill

[edit] 2004-2007: Fire and Glory & Not 4 Sale

in 2004 with his production company, Black Jays, and he also released his second major-label album titled Fire and Glory on November 15, 2005, through Virgin Records in Canada only. Hits on Fire and Glory include "Everyday (Rudebwoy)" and "Heads Up". RapReviews.com gave the album an 8.5/10 rating, stating "Fire and Glory is a better album than Firestarter Vol. 1," and "aside from having better lyrics than most of his counterparts, Kardinal's unique style also sets him apart."^[27] The album was nominated for Rap Recording of the Year at the 2006 Juno Awards.

Not 4 Sale is the fourth studio album by Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall, released September 9, 2008 on Kon Live/Geffen Records. Its his second international major-label album, after 2001's Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1. It was a critical success, spawning the top 5 Billboard Hot 100 single "Dangerous", and the minor hit "Numba 1 (Tide Is High)". 11,869 copies of the album were sold in the United States, in its first week of release. It debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 40. As of February 15, 2009, the album has sold 34,822 copies. In Canada, it debuted at number 8 on the Canadian Albums Chart, with 4,247 copies sold in the first week. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics. Allmusic gave it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "an entirely solid album", also stating "this freedom fighting and socially conscious writing is tempered with hooky club tracks that never fail."[14] USA Today gave it 3 out of 4 stars, noting "his potent blend of hip-hop and dancehall gives him a flavor all his own."PopMatters gave the album a 6/10 rating, writing "although many of the tracks here are glossy pop productions, Kardinal has not really changed since he was first heard in the '90s."The album won the award for Rap Recording of the Year at the 2009 Juno Awards.

[edit] 2008-present: Mr International

In 2008, he was featured on Just Dance (RedOne Remix) by Lady Gaga, part of the EP "Just Dance (Remixes, Pt. 2)". In 2010, he was included in the Young Artists for Haiti's version of "Wavin' Flag" in an effort to raise money for disaster relief. He starred along with many Canadian stars. Also in 2010, he was featured in Raghav's single "So Much".

Discography[link]

• Eye & I (1997)
• Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1 (2001)
• Fire and Glory (2005)
• Not 4 Sale (2008)
• A.M.T.R.I.M. (Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself) (with Nottz) (2012)
• Mr. International (2012)

Awards[link]

• 1999: Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year for Rascalz' "Northern Touch"
• 2000: Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year for producing Choclair's "Let's Ride"
• 2000: SOCAN Award for "Husslin'"
• 2001: MuchMusic Video Award - Best Rap Video for "Money Jane"
• 2002: SOCAN Award for "Money Jane"
• 2004: Canadian Urban Music Award for "Empty Barrel"
• 2006: 3 MuchMusic Video Awards - Best Video, Best Director (RT!) and VideoFACT Award for "Everyday (Rudebwoy)"
• 2009: Juno Award for Single of the Year for "Dangerous"; Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year for Not 4 Sale
• 2009: SOCAN Urban Music Award for "Dangerous"

See also[link]

32x28px	Music of Canada portal
	Hip hop portal

• Canadian hip hop
• Music of Canada

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kardinal Offishall on Myspace
• Kardinal Offishall's channel on YouTube
• Kardinal Offishall on Twitter
• Kardinal Offishall at the Internet Movie Database
• Kardinal Offishall interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' February 2009
• Border Block - Canadian Hip Hop vs. America
• Interview with DJ Stallion
• Kardinal Offishall RBMA video lecture session

Imogen Heap
Background information
Birth name	Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap
Born	(1977-12-09) 9 December 1977 (age 34)
Origin	Havering, Essex, England
Genres	Electronica, alternative, indie, synthpop,[1] folktronica, ambient, dream pop, rock
Occupations	Musician, singer, songwriter, visual artist
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards, array mbira, cello, clarinet, guitar, drums, keytar, nail violin, vocal percussion, synthesizer, sampler, organ, Hang, vocoder
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Almo Sounds (1998–2001) Megaphonic (2005–present) RCA Victor (2006–present)
Associated acts	Frou Frou Urban Species IAMX MIKA
Website	imogenheap.com

Imogen Jennifer Jane Heap ( /ˈɪmədʒɨn ˈhiːp/; born 9 December 1977 in the London Borough of Havering)^[2] is a Grammy Award-winning English singer, composer and songwriter from Havering, Essex. She is known for her work as part of the musical duo Frou Frou and her solo albums, which she writes, produces, and mixes. She has produced three solo albums, the latest of which is 2009's Ellipse, which was a North American chart success and earned Heap two Grammy nominations, winning Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.^[3]

Musical and songwriting style[link]

For her solo work (as well as her work with Frou Frou and Acacia), Heap plays heavily produced and arranged singer-songwriter pop incorporating elements of rock, dance and electronica. As a guest player and collaborator she has played rock (Jeff Beck), hip-hop (Urban Species) and theatre/film music.

A skilled multi-instrumentalist, Heap extensively uses manipulated electronic sounds as an integral part of her music. She also mixes ambient sound into her music (such as the sound of a frying pan in use cooking food, in the background of her song "My Secret Friend") and has commented that "certain sounds give the music a width and a space, and that's important."^[4]

Heap states that her song lyrics come from personal experience, but are not straightforwardly confessional. She has stated "Most of the time, the lyrics are kind of like my secret messages to my friends or my boyfriend or my mum or my dad. I would never tell them that these songs are about them or which specific lyric is about somebody. Often, when I sit down to write a lyric, it is in the heat of the moment, and something has just happened."^[4]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Heap played music from an early age, becoming classically trained in several instruments including piano, cello and clarinet. She attended Friends School, a private, Quaker-run boarding school in Saffron Walden. Heap's mother (an art therapist) and her father (a construction rock retailer) separated when she was twelve. By the age of thirteen, she had begun writing songs.

Heap did not get along well with the music teacher at her boarding school, so she principally taught herself sequencing, music engineering, sampling and production (on Atari computers). She also taught herself to play the guitar and drums, and subsequently two percussion/idiophone instruments, the array mbira and the Hang.^[5] After school, she went on to study at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon, South London.

Early work as musician (including work with Acacia)[link]

After being introduced to Nik Kershaw by his manager Mickey Modern, Heap and Kershaw recorded four demos that Mickey Modern took to Rondor Music. Consequently, a few months later she signed her first record contract at 18 to independent record label Almo Sounds^[6]. Modern and Wood formed Modernwood Management, and managed Heap until 2006, when Modernwood was dissolved. Wood continues to manage the artist via his new company, Radius Music^[7].

During 1996, Heap began working with an experimental pop band called Acacia, which featured her future collaborator Guy Sigsworth and was fronted by the singer Alexander Nilere. While never a full member of the band, Heap was a guest vocalist (as a counterpart to Nilere) and contributed to various Acacia single and album tracks. One Acacia song, "Maddening Shroud", would later be covered by Frou Frou^[8].

Mickey Modern asked Dennis Arnold to place Imogen in the line up in the 1996 Prince's Trust Concert in Hyde Park, London organized by Harvey Goldsmith. Heap performed four songs between sets by The Who and Eric Clapton.

[edit] 1998–2000: iMegaphone

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Heap's debut album, iMegaphone (an anagram of "Imogen Heap") was a mixture of self-penned and self-produced tracks, alongside tracks co-written and produced with established producers such as David Kahne, former Eurythmic Dave Stewart and Guy Sigsworth. The album was released in 1998 internationally via Almo Sounds, to favorable reviews comparing Heap's angst-filled songs to work by PJ Harvey, Kate Bush and Annie Lennox. Promotion for the record included a tour of America and performances around Europe. Three singles were commercially released in the UK: "Getting Scared", "Shine" and "Come Here Boy". "Oh Me, Oh My" was sent to US radio stations in place of "Shine".

Heap's early success was soon replaced by problems. Almo Sounds cut funding for UK promotion and gave Heap a deadline to deliver songs for her second album. Upon delivery of the songs, she was told that they lacked "hit potential". It was announced that the record label would be sold to Universal and its artists moved to other labels or released. Heap was one of the artists who was dropped from the label, leaving her without a record contract. iMegaphone had, however, been licensed from Almo Sounds to Aozora Records in Japan, who eventually re-released and re-promoted the album in January 2002, featuring "Blanket" and "Aeroplane" (a Frou Frou remix/remake of one of her B-sides, "Airplane" of the Shine single released in 1998). The album featured new packaging, all-new artwork, and a previously unavailable hidden track, entitled "Kidding", recorded live during her 1999 tour.

Copies of the original Almo Sounds release remain rare. A Brazilian label, Trama Records, currently claims to hold the license to the record and has started re-printing copies of the album in limited quantities. The album was released digitally on the US iTunes Music Store in early 2006. After achieving commercial success with her work with Guy Sigsworth as the duo Frou Frou and her second solo album, Speak for Yourself, Heap was able to secure the re-release of iMegaphone.

2001: Interim work[link]

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In the gap between the end of promotion for iMegaphone internationally and the re-promotion, Heap had also begun to think about her second solo album, and had started writing songs, both solo, as well as working with Guy Sigsworth; however, as she was without a record deal, the songs were shelved. During the time when she was unsigned, Heap appeared on two UK singles, "Meantime" (a track written by her former Acacia colleagues Guy Sigsworth and Alexander Nilere for the soundtrack to the independent British film, G:MT – Greenwich Mean Time) and "Blanket" (a collaboration with Urban Species). In 2000, Heap sang on the album You Had It Coming by Jeff Beck.

2002–2003: Frou Frou[link]

Heap had kept in contact with Guy Sigsworth (who had co-written and produced "Getting Scared" from iMegaphone) and this led to the pair of them establishing the collaborative project Frou Frou.

The initial concept for Frou Frou was Sigsworth's, and the project was to have been an album written and produced by her with each track featuring a different singer, songwriter, poet or rapper. Heap explains that Sigsworth invited her over to his studio to write lyrics to a four-bar motif he had, with one condition – that she include the word "love" somewhere. The first line she came up with was "lung of love, leaves me breathless", and the Details album track, "Flicks" was born. A week later, Sigsworth phoned Heap up again, and together they wrote and recorded the future single "Breathe In".

Throughout the process, Frou Frou work was an equal partnership, with Heap and Sigsworth making equal contributions to writing, arrangement, production and instrumental performance and Heap handling all of the vocals.

In August 2002, they released the Details album and singles "Breathe In", "It's Good To Be In Love", and "Must Be Dreaming" (although the latter two were not commercially available). The album was critically acclaimed, but did not enjoy the commercial success that they had been hoping for.

In late 2003, after an extensive promotional tour of the UK, Europe and the US, the duo were told that their record label, Island Records would not be picking up the option for a second album.

Heap and Sigsworth remain firm friends, and have worked together since the project, including their temporary re-formation in late 2003, when they covered the Bonnie Tyler classic, "Holding Out for a Hero", which was featured during the credits of the movie Shrek 2 after Jennifer Saunders version in the film. Frou Frou saw a resurgence in popularity in 2004, when their album track "Let Go" was featured in the film Garden State.

In a 2005 interview Heap said of frou frou "(it) was really like a kind of little holiday from my own work. Guy and I, we have always worked together, and then over the years, it became clear that we wanted to do a whole album together. It was very organic and spontaneous - just one of those wonderful things that happens. But there was never a mention of a second record from either of us, and not uncomfortably. We're just both kind of free spirits. I love to work with a lot of different people, but I was also just gagging to see what I could do on my own. But I'm sure in the future, Guy and I will get back together to do another record, or to record a few songs together."^[4]

[edit] 2004–2005: The O.C. and Speak for Yourself

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Performing at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

In December 2003, Heap announced on her Web site that she was going to write and produce her second solo album, using her site as a blog to publicise progress.

Heap set herself a deadline of one year to make the album, booking a session to master the album one year ahead in December 2004. She re-mortgaged her flat to fund production costs, including renting a studio at Atomic Studios, London (previously inhabited by UK grime artist, Dizzee Rascal), and purchasing instruments.

At the end of 2004, with the album completed, Heap premiered two album tracks online, selling them prior to the album's release – "Just for Now" and "Goodnight and Go".

In April 2005, The O.C. featured the vocoded-vocal track, "Hide and Seek" in the closing scenes of their season two finale. The track was released immediately to digital download services, such as iTunes, in the US, where it charted. The track was released to iTunes UK on 5 July 2005 (the same day as the UK airing of the season finale) and entered the official UK download chart.

Heap made a decision to put out the album on her own in the UK, starting her own record company, titled Megaphonic Records. The album was titled Speak for Yourself.

Speak for Yourself was released in the UK on 18 July 2005 on CD and iTunes UK, where it entered the top 10 chart. The initial 10,000 physical copies pressed sold out, distributed through large and independent record stores and Heap's own online shop.

In August 2005, Heap announced that she had licensed Speak for Yourself to Sony BMG imprint RCA Victor for the album release in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The album was released in November 2005 and debuted at #144 in the Billboard Top 200 album chart. In concert, Heap performed solo, controlling the sound through her Apple PowerBook laptop, as well as singing and playing the piano and array mbira.

She returned from the US, already having sold over 120,000 copies.

2006–2007: The year of the 'White Rabbit'[link]

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Heap also announced, on her return to the UK, that she had signed a deal for the album to be released internationally, as well as re-promoted in the UK, with a new imprint of Sony BMG, White Rabbit, run by former Sony BMG UK A&R vice president Nick Raphael. The deal meant that the album could have the promotional backing provided by a respected major label, whilst Heap retained sole control and the team she established for Megaphonic Records.

Speak for Yourself was re-released on the label on 24 April 2006, ahead of a full promotional push on 15 May, a week after the second single, "Goodnight and Go", was commercially released in the UK.

In August 2006, Heap performed a set at the V Festival, where it was announced that "Headlock" was to be the third single to be lifted from the album, and released on 16 October 2006 in the UK.

In late September and early October, Heap embarked on a tour of the UK, holding a competition on MySpace for different support acts for each venue, before touring throughout Canada and the US in November and December. This was her first tour of North America that included a band, incorporating upright bass, percussion, and support acts Kid Beyond and Levi Weaver on beatbox and guitar, respectively. In December 2006, Heap was featured on the front page of The Green Room magazine.

On 7 December 2006, Heap received two Grammy nominations for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards, one for Best New Artist and the other for Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media for "Can't Take It In".

[edit] 2007–2009: Ellipse

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Throughout the creation of her album Ellipse, Heap posted vlogs, or VBlogs as she called them, through YouTube.^[9] She used these to comment on the album as well as update on its release. The album's release was pushed back multiple times. These included Heap being asked to perform at the annual event PopTech in October 2008. During the event, she premiered one of her album's songs, "Wait it Out".

Heap announced on her Twitter page that Ellipse's first single would be "First Train Home". On 17 August 2009 Heap made the entire album Ellipse available for live streaming via her webpage.

Ellipse was released in the United Kingdom on 24 August, and in the United States on 25 August.

[edit] 2011–present: Heapsongs

On 14 March 2011 Heap officially started work on a new record as fans sent in nearly 900 "sound seeds", or samples of everyday sounds such as a "dishwasher door", a "bicycle" or a "burning match". Heap has stated that the concept for this record will be to record one track over a two week period every 2 months. Each song and video will be released immediately.^[10] According to her website, the album will be completed in roughly 1.5 years.

The first song, initially entitled #heapsong1 and later retitled "Lifeline", premiered worldwide on 28 March 2011 via Ustream^[11] along with a live remix by Tim Exile. "Lifeline" was released on 30 March 2011 as a digital download from Imogen's website and via iTunes, Amazon and other digital retailers. Released alongside this was a 12 page 3DiCD package (a 3D virtual CD) including crowd sourced (and paid for) images, the instrumental version of the song, the "seeds and solos only" version and "heap speaks seeds and solos" - an-18 minute commentary by Heap on how the sounds and solos were used in "Lifeline".

On 6 May 2011 Heap tweeted that she and Deadmau5 were working on a collaboration. The song is tentatively titled "Telemisscommunications".^[12][13][14]

List of heapsongs so far[link]

1. heapsong1 is entitled "Lifeline" and was released on 30 March 2011.
2. heapsong2 is entitled "Propeller Seeds" and was released on 5 July 2011.
3. heapsong3 is entitled "Neglected Space" and was released on 17 October 2011.
4. heapsong4 is entitled "Minds Without Fear" and was released on 21 October 2011. It was the first song to be featured on 2011 Indian show, The Dewarists.
5. heapsong5 is entitled "Xizi She Knows" and was released on 24 January 2012. It is the fifth song off the forthcoming album overall.^[15]
6. heapsong6 is entitled "Me The Machine" and was performed live by Heap on 22 April 2012. The song premiered along with the film, Love the Earth, as part of Earth Day 2012.

Recordings for television and film[link]

Heap has recorded several songs for films, including a cover of the Classics IV hit "Spooky" for the soundtrack to the Reese Witherspoon film Just Like Heaven. Her song "Hide and Seek" was featured in The Last Kiss, starring Zach Braff (who used her former band Frou Frou's "Let Go" in his 2004 film Garden State), and was also used in a 2007 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by Shia LaBeouf. "The Moment I Said It" was also used in the episode "Seven Seconds" of the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds.

In 2004, while recording her second solo album, she was commissioned to record a cover of a short nursery rhyme for the HBO television series, Six Feet Under, entitled "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia (In An Onion Patch)".

In late 2005, Heap was asked to write a track for the soundtrack of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe entitled "Can't Take It In", when a track that fellow Brit singer Dido submitted was deemed unfitting. Heap's track is played at the end of the film in an orchestral version produced by Heap and Harry Gregson Williams, who scored the movie. In addition, she composed a track for the film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, but it was deemed to be too dark in tone for the film. Instead, it was included in her album Ellipse as "2-1". 2-1 has also featured in CSI Miami (Season 8 Episode 9), as well as promotional trailers for the film The Lovely Bones.

In March 2006, Heap completed a track about locusts, entitled "Glittering Cloud", for a CD of music about the plagues of Egypt entitled Plague Songs, accompanying The Margate Exodus project, for musical director Brian Eno.

Heap recorded an a cappella version of the Leonard Cohen track "Hallelujah", for the season three finale of The O.C., and her "Not Now But Soon" was included on the original soundtrack for the NBC show, Heroes.

Song usage[link]

Imogen Heap and Frou Frou songs have been featured in various TV shows, movies, advertisements, and marching band productions, notably including CSI, The OC, SNL, Garden State, and So You Think You Can Dance.

Also notable is the sampling of Heap's song "Hide & Seek" in Jason DeRulo's single "Whatcha Say",^[16] which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps used Heap's song "Aha" in their 2010 production titled, "Metropolis: The Future is Now"

The Pack rapper Young L's 2001 mixtape 'As I Float: The Great John Nash' makes extensive use of samples of Imogen Heap songs on nearly every track.

Collaborations[link]

Heap has collaborated as a guest vocalist, co-writer, remixer or producer with many various artists throughout her career. Among them co-writing and producing By The Time for Mika and Now or Never for Josh Groban. The diverse range of other musicians Heap has worked with include IAMX, Jeff Beck, Temposhark, LHB, J. Peter Schwalm, Way Out West, Jon Bon Jovi, Mich Gerber, Sean Lennon, Urban Species, Matt Willis, Jon Hopkins, MIKA, Acacia, Britney Spears, Nik Kershaw, Blue October, Joshua Radin, Nitin Sawhney, I Fight Dragons and Deadmau5.^[12][13][14]

Use of technology[link]

Heap is an outspoken advocate of using new technology to interact and collaborate with her fans. In August 2009 she used Vokle, an online auditorium, to take questions from listeners over video chat.^[17]

Imogen also teamed up with Vokle to hold open cello auditions for her North American tour. She provided sheet music for “Aha” on her website and encouraged local fans to learn the part and audition live via Vokle. Imogen would then pick the cellist to accompany her for that particular city - sometimes with the help of viewers and her puppet Lion, Harold.

In 2010 Imogen opened her online auditions to singers and choirs and invited them to audition via submitted YouTube videos to accompany her on stage as she performed the song "Earth" from Ellipse. The winner of each local show was also invited to do a 15 minute gig of their own. In the studio, the official album recording of "Earth" was made up entirely of numerous tracks of vocals.

July 2011 saw Imogen unveil a pair of in development, high-tech musical gloves at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.^[18] Inspired by the VAMP ^[19] system developed by Elly Jessop at MIT’s media lab, Imogen set out to develop the musical gloves in collaboration with Thomas Mitchell, a lecturer in music systems at the University of the West of England, Bristol. The gloves combine sensors developed by 5DT,^[20] x-io Technologies ^[21] with Shure microphones.

Using nothing but hand gestures, Imogen is currently able to amplify/record/loop acoustic instruments and her voice, play virtual instruments and manipulate these sounds live. Imogen has for many years been working toward a less constricting live set up which enables her to be mobile while performing live multiple musical production tasks, songs and improvising spontaneously without the need 'to go back to basecamp'. The gloves enable the audience to instinctively understand and connect with the process of what's going on on stage - the 'hidden' 50% of her performance. This is part of a larger audio/visual performance project Imogen has been working towards for a couple of years with the aim of touring in 2013.

Charity[link]

In 2008 she participated in a music album called Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace, which is an initiative to support Tibet, Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso and to underline the human rights situation in Tibet. The album was issued on 5 August via iTunes and on 19 August in music stores around the world.^[22] On 12 October 2008, Heap also participated in "Run 10k: Cancer Research UK," placing fifth of the women in the actual run and raising over £1000 for the cause with the help of her fans.

In 2008 Imogen was asked to perform at POP!Tech in Camden, Maine (US). There she performed selections from her then forthcoming album Ellipse. After her set and an encouraging plea for another performance later in the conference by the audience and organizers, Imogen agreed. Having nothing else prepared though, she decided to improvise a song on the spot with parameters (tempo, key) suggested by the audience. After the show, Imogen was asked by a Poptech attendee if she would give the newly created piece of music to his charity. A ‘lightbulb’ moment occurred in Heap’s head and she saw the potential in doing these improvised pieces for local charities at each show during the tour she would soon begin.

The first of these songs materialized at Imogen’s show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, in London on the 19th of February 2010. Using the same parameters and audience participation from POP!Tech, Imogen improvised a song titled, "The Shepherdess". After the show, Imogen made the song available worldwide as a digital download on her website asking for donations per download. All proceeds went to the Great Ormond Street Hospital where Imogen was diagnosed with osteomyelitis and underwent life-saving surgery as a little girl. Loving the concept, Imogen rolled this out for her North American Tour, donating all the proceeds for each song to a local charity from that city.

In 2011 Imogen was set to play a benefit concert in New Zealand's Christchurch city to help rebuild the Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti High School, following a severe 6.3 aftershock in February originating from the 7.1 earthquake that struck the Canterbury region in September 2010. The concert was held at the Burnside High Aurora Centre, also featuring performances from Roseanna Gamlen-Greene, and The Harbour Union including The Eastern, Lindon Puffin, Delaney Davidson and The Unfaithful Ways.^[23]

Live 4 X[link]

In 2010, Imogen Heap partnered with Thomas Ermacora of Bubbletank^[24] to organize a series of online charitable events called Live 4 X.

The initial event was inspired by the 2010 Pakistan floods. Triggered by monsoon rains, the floods left approximately one-fifth of the country of Pakistan underwater, affecting over 14 million people and damaging or destroying over 900,000 homes. Teaming up with Richard Branson’s Virgin Unite and Vokle.com, Heap and Ermacorda create an online webcast/fundraiser to raise awareness and money for the flood stricken. Hosted by comedian, creative, and internet personality Ze Frank, the webcast included a series of conversations with Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity, Gary Slutkin, and Anders Wilhelmson, (and later Richard Branson and Mary Robinson) with live performances by musicians Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Kate Havnevik, KT Tunstall, Josh Groban, Kaki King, Zoe Keating and Mark Isham.

The premise of Live 4 X thus established, Heap has since continued to refine the model, organize, host, and perform a number of charitable, streaming-live, concert events. By integrating live entertainment with educated discussion and technology, Live 4 X became an effective charitable outreach tool.

Following the devastating Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of 2011, Heap told Washington Times Communities journalist and recording artist Jennifer Grassman, that she intended to continue organizing Live 4 X events to benefit various charitable causes.^[25]

Catalog of Live 4 X events to date:

• August 31, 2010 – Live 4 Pakistan raised funds for flood relief and recovery in that region. Musicians included Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Kate Havnevik, KT Tunstall, Josh Groban, and Zoe Keating. In an ironic turn of events, Heap, was kept from appearing on Live 4 Pakistan due to Hurricane Earl which at the time was progressing along the US eastern seaboard. Heap, stranded and unable to get an internet connection, later posted a video message as well as a performance of her song “Wait It Out” from Ellipse.^[26]
• February 3, 2011 – Live 4 Capetown^[27]
• April 11, 2011 – Live 4 Sendai raised funds for Japanese tsunami recovery following the disastrous Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. The event was also used to solicit rebuilding design ideas on behalf of Architecture for Humanity. Performers included Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, KT Tunstall and Jamie Cullum and hosted by Ze Frank.^[28]

Film[link]

After touring for nearly two years straight for her album Speak for Yourself Imogen continued her travels, this time with only a laptop and video camera on hand as she began her writing trip for her next album. Nine weeks later she returned to the UK with the beginnings of the award-winning Ellipse and footage (as requested by a fan to film the making of the album) from its quiet beginning. Back in Essex, Imogen sought the talents of long-time friend and film maker Justine Pearsall to continue documenting the creation of the album. The film documents every moment of joy, excitement, frustration, and even the renovation of the Imogen’s childhood home including turning her old playroom into her new home studio. Everything In-Between: The Story of Ellipse was released in November 2010.

On November 5, 2010 at the Royal Albert Hall, Heap conducted an orchestra (including friends and family) as they performed an original composition by Imogen herself orchestrated by Andrew Skeet. Heap also worked with London Contemporary Voices at this time, a scratch choir formed for this concert, which continues as a new choir in its own right. It was the score to the concept film Love The Earth - in creative partnership and co-production with Thomas Ermacora again for another Bubbletank production - in which fans were invited to submit video footage highlighting all of the breathtaking qualities of nature to be selected and edited into a film. This performance was broadcasted live worldwide.

In March for the Birds' Eye Festival at the Birds Eye View Film Festival at the Southbank Centre, Imogen composed in collaboration with Andrew Skeet an a cappella choral score to the first ever surrealist film ‘The Seashell and the Clergyman’ (Germaine Dulac, 1927) with the Holst Singers, a programme repeated at the Reverb Festival at the Roundhouse in February 2012 and in the Sage, Gateshead.

Heap also performed in the Film and Music Arena at Latitude Festival in 2011.

Discography[link]

• 1998: iMegaphone
• 2005: Speak for Yourself
• 2009: Ellipse
• 2012: Heapsongs

Frou Frou[link]

• Details (2002 • Island Records/MCA/Universal) (UK: #128)
• "Breathe In" (single) (2002 • Island Records/Universal) (UK: #44)
• "It's Good to be in Love" (single) (2002 • Island Records/Universal)
• "Must be Dreaming" (single) (2002 • Island Records/Universal)
• "Let Go" (Promotional single)

Guest appearances[link]

• Hate EP by Acacia (1996 • Radar Records)
• Sway EP by Acacia (1996 • Radar Records)
• Maddening Shroud EP by Acacia (1997 • WEA)
• Cradle by Acacia – all tracks except "Wire" (1997 • WEA)
• Blanket by Urban Species – "Blanket" and "Predictably Unpredictable" (1998)
• Amor Fati by Mich Gerber – "Embers of Love", "Sirens Call (Qishm)" and "Mare" (2000)
• ¡Viva Nueva! by Rustic Overtones – "Valentine's Day Massacre" (2001 • Tommy Boy Records)
• You Had It Coming by Jeff Beck – "Dirty Mind" and "Rollin' and Tumblin'" (2001 • Sony Music)
• Tell 'Em Who We Are by LHB^{[disambiguation needed ]} – "Coming Up For Air" (2003 • Telstar TV)
• Contact Note by Jon Hopkins – "Second Sense" (2004 • Just Music)
• It's Better To Have Loved EP by Temposhark – "Not That Big (Metronomy Remix)" (2005 • Paper & Glue)
• Foiled by Blue October – "Congratulations" (2006 • Universal Records)
• Musikain by J. Peter Schwalm – "P.I.N." (2006 • Musikain Records)
• The Invisible Line by Temposhark – "Not That Big" (2007 • Paper & Glue)
• London Undersound by Nitin Sawhney – "Bring It Home" (2008 • Cooking Vinyl)
• Kingdom of Welcome Addiction by IAMX – "My Secret Friend" (2009 • Metropolis Records)
• The Boy Who Knew Too Much by Mika – "By The Time" (2009 • Casablanca Records)
• Live at Ronnie Scott's - Jeff Beck - (2008 • Eagle Records) - (2009 • DVD)

Compilation appearances[link]

• New Dawn (Class of '94) – "Missing You" – (1994)
• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer soundtrack – "Getting Scared" – (1998 • Warner Music Group)
• Virtual Sexuality soundtrack – "Come Here Boy" – (1998 • EMI)
• G:MT – Greenwich Mean Time soundtrack – "Mean Time" (with GMT) – (1999 • Island Records/Universal)
• Serve Chilled – "Blanket" (with Urban Species) – (1999 • Hed Kandi)
• Women Talking Dirty soundtrack – "Getting Scared" – (2001 • Polygram International)
• American Psycho 2: All American Girl soundtrack – "Angry Angel" – (2002 • Rondor Music (London) Ltd)
• Garden State – "Let Go" – (2004 • Epic Records/Sony BMG)
• Nearing Grace Soundtrack – "The Walk" – (2005 • Sony BMG)
• Music from the OC: Mix 4 – "Goodnight and Go" – (2005 • Warner Music Group)
• Six Feet Under, Vol. 2: Everything Ends – "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia (In An Onion Patch)" – (2005 • Astralwerks/EMI)
• Just Like Heaven Soundtrack – "Spooky" – (2005 • Sony BMG)
• Music from the OC: Mix 5 – "Hide and Seek" – (2005 • Warner Music Group)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – "Can't Take It In" – (2005 • Disney Records/EMI)
• The Last Kiss soundtrack – "Hide and Seek" – (2005 • Lakeshore Pictures)
• Plague Songs – "Glittering Clouds (Locusts)" – (2006 • 4AD)
• So You Think You Can Dance (US) – "Hide and Seek" – (2006)
• So You Think You Can Dance (US) – "Let Go" – (2006)
• The Black Donnellys – "The Moment I Said It" – (2007)
• In Search of Sunrise 6 – "Hide and Seek" (Tiëstos' In Search Of Sunrise Remix) – (2007)
• The Holiday – "Just For Now" and "Let Go" (Under 'Frou Frou') – (2006)
• So You Think You Can Dance – "The Moment I Said It" – (2007)
• Heroes Original Soundtrack – "Not Now, But Soon" – (2008 • NBC Records)
• Criminal Minds – "The Moment I Said It" – (2008)
• Songs For Tibet – The Art of Peace' – "Hide & Seek 2" – (2008)
• Greys Anatomy – "Bad Body Double" – (2009)
• So You Think You Can Dance (US) - "Aha!" - (2009)
• The Vampire Diaries - "Wait it Out" - (2009)
• Melrose Place - "Aha!" - (2009)
• Powder Blue - "Blanket" - (2009)
• Chuck – "Wait it Out" – (2010)
• CSI: NY - "Wait it Out" - (2010)
• Made in Chelsea - "Goodnight and Go" (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Imogen Heap

• Official website
• London Contemporary Voices Choir

Natsume Sōseki
Natsume Sōseki in 1912
Born	(1867-02-09)9 February 1867 Tokyo, Japan
Died	9 December 1916(1916-12-09) (aged 49) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Writer
Genres	novels, short stories, poetry
Notable work(s)	Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat
Influenced virtually all subsequent Japanese novelists, Karatani Kōjin

Natsume Sōseki (夏目 漱石^?, February 9, 1867 – December 9, 1916), born Natsume Kinnosuke (夏目 金之助^?), is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period (1868–1912). He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales. From 1984 until 2004, his portrait appeared on the front of the Japanese 1000 yen note.

Early years[link]

Born as Natsume Kinnosuke in the town of Babashita in the Edo region of Ushigome (present Kikui, Shinjuku), Natsume began his life as an unwanted child, born to his mother late in her life, forty years old and his father then fifty-three.^[1] When he was born, he already had five siblings. Having five children and a toddler had created family insecurity and was in some ways a disgrace to the Natsume family.^[1] In 1868, a childless couple, Shiobara Masanosuke and his wife, adopted him until the age of nine, when the couple divorced.^[1] He returned to his family and was welcomed by his mother although regarded as a nuisance by his father. His mother died when he was fourteen, and his two eldest brothers died in 1887, intensifying his sense of insecurity.^{[citation needed]}

Natsume attended the First Tokyo Middle School (now Hibiya High School),^[2] where he became enamored with Chinese literature, and fancied that he might someday become a writer. His desire to become an author arose when he was about fifteen when he told his older brother about his interest in literature.^[1] However, his family disapproved strongly of this course of action, and when Natsume entered the Tokyo Imperial University in September 1884, it was with the intention of becoming an architect. Although he preferred Chinese classics, he began studying English at that time, feeling that it might prove useful to him in his future career, as English was a necessity in Japanese college.^[1]

In 1887, Natsume met Masaoka Shiki, a friend who would give him encouragement on the path to becoming a writer, which would ultimately be his career. Shiki tutored him in the art of composing haiku. From this point on, he began signing his poems with the name Sōseki, which is a Chinese idiom meaning "stubborn". In 1890, he entered the English Literature department, and quickly mastered the English language. Natsume graduated in 1893, and enrolled for some time as a graduate student and part-time teacher at the Tokyo Normal School.^{[citation needed]}

In 1895, Natsume began teaching at Matsuyama Middle School in Shikoku, which became the setting of his novel Botchan. Along with fulfilling his teaching duties, Natsume published haiku and Chinese poetry in a number of newspapers and periodicals. He resigned his post in 1896, and began teaching at the Fifth High School in Kumamoto. On June 10 of that year, he married Nakane Kyoko.^{[citation needed]}

Natsume Sōseki's lodgings in Clapham, South London

In the United Kingdom, 1901–1903[link]

In 1900, the Japanese government sent Natsume to study in Great Britain as "Japan's first Japanese English literary scholar".^[3] He visited Cambridge and stayed a night there, but gave up the idea of studying at the university because he could not afford it on his government scholarship.^[4] He studied instead at University College, London (UCL). He had a miserable time of it in London, spending most of his days indoors buried in books, and his friends feared that he might be losing his mind.^[5] He also visited Pitlochry in Scotland.

He lived in four different lodgings, only the last of which, lodging with Priscilla and her sister Elizabeth Leale in Clapham (see the photograph), proved satisfactory. Five years later, in his preface to Bungakuron (The Criticism of Literature), he wrote about the period:

The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant years in my life. Among English gentlemen I lived in misery, like a poor dog that had strayed among a pack of wolves.^[6]

He got along well with the one Leale sister, who shared his love of literature (notably Shakespeare—his tutor at UCL was the Shakespeare scholar W. J. Craig^[7]—and Milton) and spoke fluent French, much to his admiration. The Leales were a Channel Island family, and Priscilla had been born in France. The sisters worried about Natsume's incipient paranoia and successfully urged him to get out more and take up cycling.

Despite his poverty, loneliness, and mental problems, he solidified his knowledge of English literature during this period and returned to Japan in 1903.

After his return to the Empire of Japan, he replaced Koizumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) at the First Higher School, and subsequently became a professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, where he taught literary theory and literary criticism.^{[citation needed]}

Literary career[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009)

Natsume's literary career began in 1903, when he began to contribute haiku, renku (haiku-style linked verse), haitaishi (linked verse on a set theme) and literary sketches to literary magazines, such as the prominent Hototogisu, edited by his former mentor Masaoka Shiki, and later by Takahama Kyoshi. However, it was the public success of his satirical novel I Am a Cat in 1905 that won him wide public admiration as well as critical acclaim.^[8]

He followed on this success with short stories, such as Rondon tō ("Tower of London") in 1905 and the novels Botchan ("Little Master"), and Kusamakura ("Grass Pillow") in 1906, which established his reputation, and which enabled him to leave his post at the university for a position with Asahi Shimbun in 1907, and to begin writing full-time. Much of his work deals with the relation between Japanese culture and Western culture. Especially his early works are influenced by his studies in London; his novel Kairo-kō was the earliest and only major prose treatment of the Arthurian legend in Japanese.^[9] He began writing one novel a year until his death from a stomach ulcer in 1916.

Obverse of a 1984 series 1000 Japanese yen banknote

Major themes in Natsume's works include ordinary people fighting against economic hardship, the conflict between duty and desire (a traditional Japanese theme; see giri), loyalty and group mentality versus freedom and individuality, personal isolation and estrangement, the rapid industrialization of Japan and its social consequences, contempt of Japan's aping of Western culture, and a pessimistic view of human nature. Natsume took a strong interest in the writers of the Shirakaba (White Birch) literary group. In his final years, authors such as Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Kume Masao became close followers of his literary style.^{[citation needed]}

Major works[link]

Natsume's major works include:

See also[link]

• Anglo-Japanese relations
• Japanese literature
• List of Japanese authors
• Fusanosuke Natsume – Natsume's grandson
• Minae Mizumura – finished Natsume's last, unfinished novel, Light and Darkness

Sources[link]

• Bargen, Doris D. Suicidal Honor: General Nogi and the Writings of Mori Ogai and Natsume Sōseki. University of Hawaii Press (2006). ISBN 0-8248-2998-0
• Brodey, I. S. and S. I. Tsunematsu, Rediscovering Natsume Sōseki, (Kent: Global Oriental, 2000)
• Doi, Takeo, trans. by W. J. Tyler, The Psychological World of Natsume Sōseki. Harvard University Asia Center (1976). ISBN 0-674-72116-0
• Gessel, Van C. Three Modern Novelists: Soseki, Tanizaki, Kawabata. Kodansha International, 1993
• Keene, Donald. Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era: Fiction, Chapter 12. 2nd Revised Edition, Columbia University Press, 1998.
• Milward, Peter. The Heart of Natsume Sōseki: First Impressions of His Novels. Azuma Shobo (1981). ASIN: B000IK2690
• Olson, Lawrence. Ambivalent Moderns: Portraits of Japanese Cultural Identity. Savage, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield (1992). ISBN 0-8476-7739-7
• Ridgeway, William N. A Critical Study of The Novels of Natsume Sōseki, 1867–1916. Edwin Mellen Press (January 28, 2005). ISBN 0-7734-6230-9
• Yu, Beongchoeon. Natsume Sōseki. Macmillan Publishing Company (1984). ISBN 0-8057-2850-3

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Natsume Sōseki

	Novels portal
	Japan portal

• natsumesoseki.com
• Natsume Sōseki at かまくら GreenNet, the website of Kamakura City
• Natsume Souseki at Meisaku Live
• Video: House of Ogai Mori & Soseki Natsume
• Natsume Souseki at Amazon Kindle Store
• Works by Natsume Sōseki at Project Gutenberg
• Sōseki page including links to the entire text of Kokoro
• Natsume Sōseki on aozora.gr.jp (complete texts with furigana)
• Tohoku University: Natsume Soseki Library
• Natsume Sōseki's grave

Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand in concert, O2 Arena, London 2007
Background information
Birth name	Barbara Joan Streisand
Born	(1942-04-24) April 24, 1942 (age 70) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genres	Broadway, traditional pop, adult contemporary
Occupations	singer-songwriter, actress, film producer, director
Years active	1957–present
Labels	Columbia
Website	barbrastreisand.com

Barbra Joan Streisand (/ˈstraɪsænd/; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, writer, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards,^[1] eight Grammy Awards,^[2] five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy,^[3] a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award,^[4] a Peabody Award,^[4] and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

She is one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in the United States and 140 million albums sold worldwide.^[5][6] She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre.^[7] Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

According to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most top-ten albums of any female recording artist – a total of 32 since 1963.^[8] Streisand has the widest span (48 years) between first and latest top-ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became one of the rare artists to achieve number-one albums in five consecutive decades.^[9] According to the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States.^[2]

Early life[link]

Barbara Joan Streisand (see name change) was born on April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family, the daughter of Emanuel and Diana (née Rosen) Streisand, both of Austrian descent. She is the second of two siblings sired by Emanuel (her older brother is Sheldon), who was a respected high school teacher. Fifteen months after Streisand's birth, her father died of a cerebral hemorrhage and the family went into near-poverty.^[10] Streisand first attended the Jewish Orthodox Yeshiva of Brooklyn, giving a solo performance at the age of 7.^[11] She later attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and joined the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club.^[12][13]. Streisand recollects, "I'm so glad I came from Brooklyn--it's down to earth."^[14]

Diana Rosen Streisand remarried Louis Kind in 1949^[10] and gave Streisand a half-sister, the singer Roslyn Kind^[10][15][16] Kind is 9 years younger than Barbra.^[17]

Barbra Streisand became a nightclub singer while in her teens. She wanted to be an actress and appeared in summer stock and in a number of Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood (1959), with then-unknown Joan Rivers. (In her autobiography, Rivers wrote that she played a lesbian with a crush on Streisand's character, but this was later denied by the play's author.) Driftwood ran for only six weeks.^[18] When her boyfriend, Barry Dennen, helped her create a club act — first performed at The Lion, a popular gay nightclub in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1960 — she achieved success as a singer. While singing at The Lion for several weeks, she changed her name from Barbara to Barbra.^[19][20] Afterward she appeared at other New York nightclubs, including the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel. One early appearance outside of New York City was at Enrico Banducci’s hungry i nightclub in San Francisco.^{[citation needed]} In 1961, Streisand appeared at the Town and Country nightclub in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but her appearance was cut short; the club owner did not appreciate her singing style.^[21] Streisand appeared at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit in 1961.^[22]

Portrait photograph, 1962

Streisand's first television appearance was on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Jack Paar, in 1961, singing Harold Arlen's "A Sleepin' Bee".^[23] Orson Bean, who substituted for Paar that night, had seen the singer perform at a gay bar and booked her for the telecast. (Her older brother Sheldon paid NBC for a kinescope film so she could use it in 1961 to promote herself. Decades later the film was preserved through digitizing and is available for viewing on a website.)^[24] Later in 1961, Streisand became a semi-regular on PM East/PM West, a talk/variety series. PM East was hosted by Mike Wallace and Joyce Davidson.^[25] PM West was hosted by Terrence O'Flaherty. Westinghouse Broadcasting, which aired the television show in a select few cities (Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and San Francisco), wiped all the videotapes soon after broadcasting them.^[26] Audio segments from some episodes, which were saved by Streisand's fans, are part of the compilation CD Just for the Record, which went platinum in 1991. The singer said on 60 Minutes in 1991 that 30 years earlier Mike Wallace had been "mean, very mean" to her on PM East/PM West.^[27] He countered that she had been "totally self-absorbed." 60 Minutes included the audio of Streisand saying to him in 1961, "I like the fact that you are provoking. But don't provoke me."^[28]

In 1962, after several appearances on PM East/PM West, Streisand first appeared on Broadway, in the small but star-making role of Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Her first album, The Barbra Streisand Album, won two Grammy Awards in 1963. Following her success in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Streisand made several appearances on The Tonight Show in 1962 and 1963. Topics covered in her interviews with host Johnny Carson included the empire-waisted dresses that she bought wholesale and her "crazy" reputation at Erasmus Hall High School.^[29] As is the case with Mike Wallace, only audio survives from small portions of her telecast conversations with Carson. It was at about this time that Streisand entered into a long and successful professional relationship with Lee Solters and Sheldon Roskin as her publicists with the firm Solters/Roskin (later Solters/Roskin/Friedman).

Streisand returned to Broadway in 1964 with an acclaimed performance as entertainer Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The show introduced two of her signature songs, "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade." Because of the play's overnight success, she appeared on the cover of Time. In 1966, she repeated her success with Funny Girl in London's West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre. From 1965 to 1967 she appeared in her first four solo television specials.

Career[link]

Singing[link]

Streisand has recorded 35 studio albums, almost all with Columbia Records. Her early works in the 1960s (her debut The Barbra Streisand Album, The Second Barbra Streisand Album, The Third Album, My Name Is Barbra, etc.) are considered classic renditions of theater and cabaret standards, including her pensive version of the normally uptempo "Happy Days Are Here Again". She performed this in a duet with Judy Garland on The Judy Garland Show. Garland referred to her on the air as one of the last great belters. They also sang "There's No Business Like Show Business" with Ethel Merman joining them.

Beginning with My Name Is Barbra, her early albums were often medley-filled keepsakes of her television specials. Starting in 1969, she began attempting more contemporary material, but like many talented singers of the day, she found herself out of her element with rock. Her vocal talents prevailed, and she gained newfound success with the pop and ballad-oriented Richard Perry-produced album Stoney End in 1971. The title track, written by Laura Nyro, was a major hit for Streisand.

Barbra Streisand, 1973

During the 1970s, she was also highly prominent on the pop charts, with Top 10 recordings such as "The Way We Were" (US No. 1), "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" (US No. 1), "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (1979, with Donna Summer), which as of 2010 is reportedly still the most commercially successful duet, (US No. 1), "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (with Neil Diamond) (US No. 1) and "The Main Event" (US No. 3), some of which came from soundtrack recordings of her films. As the 1970s ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer in the U.S. — only Elvis Presley and The Beatles had sold more albums.^[30] In 1980, she released her best-selling effort to date, the Barry Gibb-produced Guilty. The album contained the hits "Woman in Love" (which spent several weeks atop the pop charts in the Fall of 1980), "Guilty", and "What Kind of Fool".

After years of largely ignoring Broadway and traditional pop music in favor of more contemporary material, Streisand returned to her musical-theater roots with 1985's The Broadway Album, which was unexpectedly successful, holding the coveted No. 1 Billboard position for three straight weeks, and being certified quadruple platinum. The album featured tunes by Rodgers & Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Stephen Sondheim, who was persuaded to rework some of his songs especially for this recording. The Broadway Album was met with acclaim, including a Grammy nomination for album of the year and, ultimately, handed Streisand her eighth Grammy as Best Female Vocalist. After releasing the live album One Voice in 1986, Streisand was set to take another musical journey along the Great White Way in 1988. She recorded several cuts for the album under the direction of Rupert Holmes, including "On My Own" (from Les Misérables), a medley of "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "Heather on the Hill" (from Finian's Rainbow and Brigadoon, respectively), "All I Ask of You" (from The Phantom of the Opera), "Warm All Over" (from The Most Happy Fella) and an unusual solo version of "Make Our Garden Grow" (from Candide). Streisand was not happy with the direction of the project and it was ultimately scrapped. Only "Warm All Over" and a reworked, lite FM-friendly version of "All I Ask of You" were ever released, the latter appearing on Streisand's 1988 effort, Till I Loved You. At the beginning of the 1990s, Streisand started focusing on her film directorial efforts and became almost inactive in the recording studio. In 1991, a four-disc box set, Just for the Record, was released. A compilation spanning Streisand's entire career to date, it featured over 70 tracks of live performances, greatest hits, rarities and previously unreleased material.

The following year, Streisand's concert fundraising events helped propel former President Bill Clinton into the spotlight and into office.^[31] Streisand later introduced Clinton at his inauguration in 1993. Streisand's music career, however, was largely on hold. A 1992 appearance at an APLA benefit as well as the aforementioned inaugural performance hinted that Streisand was becoming more receptive to the idea of live performances. A tour was suggested, though Streisand would not immediately commit to it, citing her well-known stage fright as well as security concerns. During this time, Streisand finally returned to the recording studio and released Back to Broadway in June 1993. The album was not as universally lauded as its predecessor, but it did debut at No. 1 on the pop charts (a rare feat for an artist of Streisand's age, especially given that it relegated Janet Jackson's Janet to the No. 2 spot). One of the album's highlights was a medley of "I Have A Love" / "One Hand, One Heart", a duet with Johnny Mathis, who Streisand said is one of her favorite singers (this is stated in the CD's liner notes).^{[citation needed]}

In 1993, New York Times music critic Stephen Holden wrote that Streisand "enjoys a cultural status that only one other American entertainer, Frank Sinatra, has achieved in the last half century."^[32] In September 1993, Streisand announced her first public concert appearances in 27 years. What began as a two-night New Year's event at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas eventually led to a multi-city tour in the summer of 1994. Tickets to the tour were sold out in under one hour. Streisand also appeared on the covers of major magazines in anticipation of what Time magazine named "The Music Event of the Century." The tour was one of the biggest all-media merchandise parlays in history. Ticket prices ranged from US$50 to US$1,500 – making Streisand the highest-paid concert performer in history. Barbra Streisand: The Concert went on to be the top-grossing concert of the year and earned five Emmy Awards and the Peabody Award, while the taped broadcast on HBO is, to date, the highest-rated concert special in HBO's 30-year history. Following the tour's conclusion, Streisand once again kept a low profile musically, instead focusing her efforts on acting and directing duties as well as a burgeoning romance with actor James Brolin.

In 1997, she finally returned to the recording studio, releasing Higher Ground, a collection of songs of a loosely-inspirational nature which also featured a duet with Céline Dion. The album received generally favorable reviews and, remarkably, once again debuted at No. 1 on the pop charts. Following her marriage to Brolin in 1998, Streisand recorded an album of love songs entitled A Love Like Ours the following year. Reviews were mixed, with many critics carping about the somewhat syrupy sentiments and overly-lush arrangements; however, it did produce a modest hit for Streisand in the country-tinged "If You Ever Leave Me", a duet with Vince Gill.

On New Year's Eve 1999, Streisand returned to the concert stage, with the highest-grossing single concert in Las Vegas history to date.^{[citation needed]} At the end of the millennium, she was the number-one female singer in the U.S., with at least two No. 1 albums in each decade since she began performing. A two-disc live album of the concert entitled Timeless: Live in Concert was released in 2000. Streisand performed versions of the Timeless concert in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, in early 2000. In advance of four concerts (two each in Los Angeles and New York) in September 2000, Streisand announced she was retiring from paying public concerts. Her performance of the song "People" was broadcast on the Internet via America Online.

Streisand's most-recent albums have been Christmas Memories (2001), a somewhat somber collection of holiday songs (which felt entirely —albeit unintentionally— appropriate in the early post-9/11 days), and The Movie Album (2003), featuring famous film themes and backed by a large symphony orchestra. Guilty Pleasures (called Guilty Too in the UK), a collaboration with Barry Gibb and a sequel to their Guilty, was released worldwide in 2005.

In February 2006, Streisand recorded the song "Smile" alongside Tony Bennett at Streisand's Malibu home. The song is included on Tony Bennett's 80th birthday album, Duets. In September 2006, the pair filmed a live performance of the song for a special directed by Rob Marshall entitled Tony Bennett: An American Classic. The special aired on NBC November 21, 2006, and was released on DVD the same day. Streisand's duet with Bennett opened the special. In 2006, Streisand announced her intent to tour again, in an effort to raise money and awareness for multiple issues. After four days of rehearsal at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, the tour began on October 4 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, continued with a featured stop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (this was the concert Streisand chose to film for a TV special), and concluded at Staples Center in Los Angeles on November 20, 2006. Special guests Il Divo were interwoven throughout the show. The show was known as Streisand: The Tour.

Streisand's 20-concert tour set box-office records. At the age of 64, well past the prime of most performers, she grossed $92,457,062 and set house gross records in 14 of the 16 arenas played on the tour. She set the third-place record for her October 9, 2006, show at Madison Square Garden, the first- and second-place records of which are held by her two shows in September 2000. She set the second-place record at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with her December 31, 1999, show being the house record and the highest-grossing concert of all time. This led many people to openly criticize Streisand for price gouging, as many tickets sold for upwards of $1,000.^{[citation needed]}

A collection of performances culled from different stops on this tour, Live in Concert 2006, debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it Streisand's 29th Top 10 album.^[33] In the summer of 2007, Streisand gave concerts for the first time in continental Europe. The first concert took place in Zürich (June 18), then Vienna (June 22), Paris (June 26), Berlin (June 30), Stockholm (July 4, canceled), Manchester (July 10) and Celbridge, near Dublin (July 14), followed by three concerts in London (July 18, 22 and 25), the only European city where Streisand had performed before 2007. Tickets for the London dates cost between £100.00 and £1,500.00 and for the Ireland date between €118 and €500. The tour included a 58-piece orchestra.

In February 2008, Forbes listed Streisand as the No. 2 earning female musician, between June 2006 and June 2007, with earnings of about $60 million.^[34] Although Streisand's range has changed with time and her voice has deepened over the years, her vocal prowess has remained remarkably secure for a singer whose career has endured for nearly half a century. Streisand is a contralto or possibly a mezzo-soprano who has a range consisting of well over two octaves from "low E to a high G and probably a bit more that [sic?] in either direction."^[35] On November 17, 2008, Streisand returned to the studio to begin recording what would be her sixty-third album^[36] and it was announced that Diana Krall was producing the album.^[37] Streisand is one of the recipients of the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors.^[38] On December 7, 2008, she visited the White House as part of the ceremonies.^[36]

On April 25, 2009, CBS aired Streisand's latest TV special, Streisand: Live in Concert, highlighting the aforementioned featured stop from her 2006 North American tour, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On September 26, 2009, Streisand performed a one-night-only show at the Village Vanguard in New York City's Greenwich Village.^[39] This performance was later released on DVD as One Night Only Barbra Streisand and Quartet at The Village Vanguard. On September 29, 2009, Streisand and Columbia Records released her newest studio album, Love is the Answer, produced by Diana Krall.^[40] On October 2, 2009, Streisand made her British television performance debut with an interview on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross to promote the album. This album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and registered her biggest weekly sales since 1997, making Streisand the only artist in history to achieve No. 1 albums in five different decades.

On February 1, 2010, Streisand joined over 80 other artists in recording a new version of the 1985 charity single "We Are the World". Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie planned to release the new version to mark the 25th anniversary of its original recording. These plans changed, however, in view of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, and on February 12, the song, now called "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", made its debut as a charity single to support relief aid for the beleaguered island nation.

In 2011, she sang with Jackie Evancho in a song called "Somewhere" on Jackie Evancho' album Dream With Me.

Streisand was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on February 11, 2011, two days prior to the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Streisand is one of many singers who use teleprompters during their live performances. Streisand has defended her choice in using teleprompters to display lyrics and, sometimes, banter.^[41]

Acting[link]

in Hello, Dolly! (1969)

Her first film was a reprise of her Broadway hit, Funny Girl (1968), an artistic and commercial success directed by Hollywood veteran William Wyler. Streisand won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, sharing it with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter), the only time there has been a tie in this Oscar category. Her next two movies were also based on musicals, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly!, directed by Gene Kelly (1969), and Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Vincente Minnelli (1970), while her fourth film was based on the Broadway play The Owl and the Pussycat (1970).

During the 1970s, Streisand starred in several screwball comedies, including What's Up, Doc? (1972) and The Main Event (1979), both co-starring Ryan O'Neal, and For Pete's Sake (1974) with Michael Sarrazin. One of her most famous roles during this period was in the drama The Way We Were (1973) with Robert Redford, for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She earned her second Academy Award for Best Original Song as composer (together with lyricist Paul Williams) for the song "Evergreen", from A Star Is Born in 1976.

Along with Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and later Steve McQueen, Streisand formed First Artists Production Company in 1969, so the actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves. Streisand's initial outing with First Artists was Up the Sandbox (1972).

From a period beginning in 1969 and ending in 1980, Streisand appeared in the annual motion picture exhibitors poll of Top 10 Box Office attractions a total of 10 times, often as the only woman on the list. After the commercially disappointing All Night Long in 1981, Streisand's film output decreased considerably. She has acted in only six films since.

Streisand produced a number of her own films, setting up Barwood Films in 1972. For Yentl (1983), she was producer, director, and star, an experience she repeated for The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). There was controversy when Yentl received five Academy Award nominations, but none for the major categories of Best Picture, Actress, or Director.^[42] The Prince of Tides received even more Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but the director was not nominated. Streisand also scripted Yentl, something she is not always given credit for. According to New York Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal in an interview (story begins at minute 16) with Allan Wolper, "the one thing that makes Barbra Streisand crazy is when nobody gives her the credit for having written Yentl."

In 2004, Streisand made a return to film acting, after an eight-year hiatus, in the comedy Meet the Fockers (a sequel to Meet the Parents), playing opposite Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner and Robert De Niro.

In 2005, Streisand's Barwood Films, Gary Smith, and Sonny Murray purchased the rights to Simon Mawer's book Mendel's Dwarf.^[43] In December 2008, she stated that she was considering directing an adaptation of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart, a project she has worked on since the mid-1990s^[44] In 2009, Andrew Lloyd Webber stated that Streisand was one of several actresses (alongside Meryl Streep and Glenn Close) who were interested in playing the role of Norma Desmond in the film adaptation of Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard.^[45]

In December 2010, Streisand appeared in Little Fockers, the third film from the Meet the Parents trilogy. She reprised the role of Roz Focker alongside Dustin Hoffman.

On January 4, 2011, the New York Post reported that Streisand was in negotiations to produce, direct, and star in a new film version of Gypsy. In an interview with the New York Post, Arthur Laurents said: "We've talked about it a lot, and she knows what she's doing. She has my approval." He said that he would not write the screenplay.^[46][47] The following day, the New York Times reported that Arthur Laurents clarified in a telephonic interview that Streisand would not direct the film "but playing Rose is enough to make her happy."^[47][48] Streisand's spokesperson confirmed that "there have been conversations".^[49] After Laurents' subsequent death there was no official word on the status of the film for months, until it was announced on March 13, 2012 that Gypsy was moving forward, with Julian Fellowes writing the screenplay for the project.

On January 28, 2011, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Paramount Pictures has given the road-trip comedy My Mother's Curse the green light to begin shooting, with Streisand and Seth Rogen playing mother and son. Anne Fletcher is slated to direct the project with a script by Dan Fogelman. Lorne Michaels and John Goldwyn will produce it with Evan Goldberg. Executive producers include Streisand, Rogen, Fogelman, and David Ellison, whose Skydance will co-finance the pic.^[50] Shooting began in spring of 2011 and wrapped in July. In August the Internet Movie Database began listing the film with the new title Guilt Trip. The film is set for a November 2012 release (originally it was slated to release in March 2012).

Personal life[link]

Marriages and family[link]

Streisand has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Elliott Gould, to whom she was married from 1963 until 1971. They had one child, Jason Gould, who would go on to star as her on-screen son in The Prince of Tides. Her second husband is actor James Brolin, whom she married on July 1, 1998. While they have no children together, Brolin has two children from his first marriage, including Academy Award-nominated actor Josh Brolin, and one child from his second marriage. Both of her husbands starred in the 1970s conspiracy sci-fi thriller Capricorn One.

Jon Peters' daughters, Caleigh Peters and Skye Peters are her goddaughters.^{[citation needed]}

Name[link]

Streisand changed her name from Barbara to Barbra because, she said, "I hated the name, but I refused to change it."^[51] Streisand further explained, "Well, I was 18 and I wanted to be unique, but I didn't want to change my name because that was too false. You know, people were saying you could be Joanie Sands, or something like that. [My middle name is Joan.] And I said, 'No, let's see, if I take out the 'a,' it's still 'Barbara,' but it's unique."^[52] A 1967 biography with a concert program said, "the spelling of her first name is an instance of partial rebellion: she was advised to change her last name and retaliated by dropping an “a” from the first instead."^[53]

Politics[link]

Streisand has long been an active supporter of the Democratic Party and many of their causes. Streisand said, "The Democrats have always been the party of working people and minorities. I've always identified with the minorities."^[54]

In 1971, Streisand was one of the celebrities listed on President Richard Nixon's infamous Enemies List.

Streisand is a supporter of gay rights, and in 2008 helped raise funds to defeat Proposition 8 in California.^[55]

Philanthropy[link]

Streisand has personally raised $25 million^[56] for organizations through her live performances. The Streisand Foundation,^[57] established in 1986, has contributed over $16 million through nearly 1,000 grants to "national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues^[58] and nuclear disarmament."^[59]

In 2006, Streisand donated $1 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation in support of former President Bill Clinton’s climate change initiative.^[60]

In 2008, Streisand gifted $5 million to endow the Barbra Streisand Women's Cardiovascular Research and Education Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Women's Heart Center.^[61] In September that year, Parade magazine included Streisand on their Giving Back Fund's second annual Giving Back 30 survey, "a ranking of the celebrities who have made the largest donations to charity in 2007 according to public records",^[62] as the third most generous celebrity. The Giving Back Fund claimed Streisand donated $11 million, which The Streisand Foundation distributed.

At Julien’s Auctions in October 2009, Streisand, a long-time collector of art and furniture, sold 526 items with all the proceeds going to her foundation. Items included a costume from Funny Lady and a vintage dental cabinet purchased by the performer at 18 years old. The sale’s most valuable lot was a painting by Kees van Dongen.^[63] In December 2011 she agreed to sing at a fundraising gala for Israel Defence Forces charities.^[64]

References in popular culture[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2007)

In television[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2012)

One memorable parody of Streisand's iconic status has been on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live in the recurring skit Coffee Talk where character Linda Richman, played by Mike Myers, hosts a talk show dedicated to, among other things, the adoration of Streisand. Streisand, in turn, made an unannounced guest appearance on the show, surprising Myers and guests, Madonna and Roseanne Barr. Mike Myers also appeared as the Linda Richman character on stage with Streisand at her 1994 MGM Grand concert, as well as a few of the 1994 Streisand tour shows.^[65]

Streisand is mentioned in the sitcom Will & Grace, particularly by the character Jack McFarland. Songs made famous by Streisand, such as "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from The Broadway Album are reproduced by characters in the show.

At least four episodes of the animated sitcom The Simpsons refer to Streisand. Outside Springfield Elementary School, announcing Lisa's jazz concert and noting tickets have been sold out, is an advertisement for a Streisand concert in the same venue for the following day, with tickets still on sale. In "Fear of Flying", after Marge undergoes therapy, she informs the therapist that whenever she hears the wind blow, she'll hear it saying "Lowenstein", Streisand's therapist character in The Prince of Tides, even though Marge's therapist is named Zweig. Another reference comes in "Sleeping with the Enemy" when Bart exclaims after seeing Lisa make a snow-angel in a cake on the kitchen table, "At least she's not singing Streisand", in reference to Nelson Muntz singing "Papa Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl earlier in the episode. In "Simple Simpson", a patriotic country singer says that Streisand is unpatriotic and could be pleased by spitting on the flag and strangling a bald eagle.

Another enduring satirical reference is in the animated series South Park, most notably in the episode "Mecha-Streisand", where Streisand is portrayed as a self-important, evil, gigantic robotic dinosaur with a terrible singing voice about to conquer the universe before being defeated by Robert Smith of The Cure. On another occasion, the Halloween episode "Spookyfish" is promoted for a week as being done in "Spooky-Vision", which involves Streisand's face seen at times during the episode in the four corners of the screen. At the end of the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, her name is used as a powerful curse word, a gag repeated in the episode "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants". The Mecha-Streisand character made a return in the Season 14 episodes "200" and "201", as one of several celebrities the show had lampooned over the years.

In the Family Guy episode "Mind Over Murder", Lois sings a cabaret act with "Don't Rain on My Parade" — originally sung by Streisand in Funny Girl — only slowed down and jazzier, as an act of defiance to Peter. In "Stewie Kills Lois", Peter receives life insurance after Lois' apparent death, and claims that he has more money than Streisand. This was followed by a cut scene showing Streisand blowing money out of her nose. In "Wasted Talent", Streisand and husband James Brolin are shown sitting together at the dinner table, with Streisand remarking "I'm glad I married a regular person and not a celebrity".

Streisand is referenced frequently on the Fox TV musical series Glee. The character Rachel (Lea Michele) mentions that Streisand refused to alter her nose in order to become famous in the show's third episode "Acafellas". Also, in the mid-season finale of Glee, Rachel sings the Streisand anthem "Don't Rain on My Parade". In the episode "Hell-O", she says that she will be heartbroken for life, "Like Barbra in The Way We Were." In the same episode, Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff) criticizes Rachel's performance of "Don't Rain on My Parade" by saying that she "lacked Barbra's emotional depth."

In the episode "Theatricality", Rachel is spying on the opposing team's dance rehearsal when the director, Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), expresses dissatisfaction at the team's routine. She demonstrates how it's done with the title song from Funny Girl, and Rachel, sitting in the audience, whispers to her friend, "Exactly what I would have done — Barbra. I could do it in my sleep." In the episode "Grilled Cheesus" Rachel sings Barbra's infamous song from the movie Yentl, Papa, Can You Hear Me?,to help support Kurt's dad Burt after undergoing a heart attack. Rachel sang it in a park with Finn sitting at her side/in Burt Hummel's hospital room. She told Finn that she "wanted nothing to come between her and God, and Yentl sang it outside in the movie." ^[66] On the episode Born This Way Barbara is mentioned when Rachel is debating whether or not to get a nose job, Kurt Hummel and the rest of the glee club set up a "Barbra-vention" of a flashmob to the popular hit "Barbra Streisand" by Duck Sauce.

The characters of Kurt and Rachel also sang the "Get Happy/Happy Days are Here Again" duet originally heard during Streisand's 1963 appearance with Judy Garland on Garland's weekly TV series. In the season three episode "I Am Unicorn," Kurt sings Barbra Streisand's "I'm the Greatest Star" from the musical Funny Girl, stating "[He] has permission from the woman herself," actually meaning Rachel Berry. When Glee won the prize for "Best TV Series-Comedy Or Musical" at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards, creator Ryan Murphy quipped on stage, "Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press and Miss Barbra Streisand."

In the sitcom The Nanny, Streisand is viewed as a divine figure by Fran Fine throughout the show. When asked by her boss who she would save if her mother and Streisand were drowning, Fran replies "I'd save ma, Barbra can walk on water," Another example is in "The Passed-Over Story," when Fran hears that Barbra Streisand and James Brolin will be arriving at the airport, Fran runs towards the door yelling "It's the miracle of Passover, the Messiah is coming".

On film[link]

In movies, Streisand is remembered as the favorite of the character Howard Brackett, played by Kevin Kline, who finally admits to being gay while standing at the altar in the 1997 romantic comedy In & Out. His unfortunate bride-to-be, played by Joan Cusack, cries out in frustration to family and friends present, "Does anybody here KNOW how many times I've had to sit through Funny Lady?" In an earlier scene, Howard is taunted by a friend during an argument at a bar with a jeering, "The studio thought that Barbra was too ol-l-ld to play Yentl." The film also mentions the album Color Me Barbra. Barbra's signature tune, "People", is played by a school orchestra in honor of teacher Howard as the story wraps at the end of the credits. This and similar references refer to her popularity among gay men.

In the 1996 comedy "The Associate", Whoopi Goldberg plays a business woman, Laurel Ayers, who creates a business associate, Robert S. Cutty, who is said to have known and dated Streisand. In addition to having an autographed picture of Streisand in her office, Ayers also has a cross-dressing friend who dresses up to resemble Streisand throughout the film.

The characters Carla and Connie, as aspiring song-and-dance acts in the 2004 comedy Connie and Carla, include four Streisand references. They sing "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and "Memory" at an airport lounge and "Don't Rain on My Parade" onstage in a gay bar, and talk about the plot of Yentl at the climax of the film after they ask how many in their audience have seen the movie (everyone raised their hands).

In music[link]

Sound clips of Streisand's heated exchange with a supporter of former U.S. president George W. Bush were sampled in the 2009 Lucian Piane dance song "Bale Out", making it sound as if she were arguing with actor Christian Bale (whose recorded outbursts during the filming of Terminator Salvation were the centerpiece of the song).^[67]

"Barbra Streisand" is a disco house song by American-Canadian DJ duo Duck Sauce. It was released on September 10, 2010. The song peaked at number one in Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland and Austria. It became a top ten hit in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the UK.

On stage[link]

Daniel Stern's 2003 Off-Broadway play Barbra's Wedding was set against the backdrop of Streisand's 1998 wedding to James Brolin.

"Streisand effect"[link]

In 2003, Streisand sued aerial photographer Kenneth Adelman for displaying a photograph of her Malibu, California, home, along with other photos of the California coastline. Her suit was dismissed under the anti-SLAPP provisions of California law.^[68][69][70] Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the term "Streisand effect" in January 2005 to describe the publicity generated by Streisand's efforts to suppress the publication of the photograph.

Awards[link]

In 1984, Streisand was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.^[71] She also received the National Medal of Arts^[72] in 2000 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2008. She was inducted as an officer of France's Legion of Honour in 2007.

Streisand is the only women to have an album reach #1 on the US charts and win the Academy Award for Best Actress.^{[citation needed]}

Music awards[link]

Streisand's works have been nominated for over 57 Grammy Awards; she won 15 of these, including two special awards. She has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame three times. In 2011, she was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year by the Grammy Foundation.

Film awards[link]

Streisand has won 2 Academy Awards (Oscar) against 5 nominations, 2 for acting, 2 for song writing and 1 for Best Picture,

1984 nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Male actor for her (male) performance in Yentl.

Appearances[link]

Broadway performances[link]

West End performances[link]

Television specials[link]

Tours and live performances[link]

Discography[link]

• 1963: The Barbra Streisand Album
• 1963: The Second Barbra Streisand Album
• 1964: The Third Album
• 1964: People
• 1965: My Name Is Barbra
• 1965: My Name Is Barbra, Two...
• 1966: Color Me Barbra
• 1966: Je m'appelle Barbra
• 1967: Simply Streisand
• 1967: A Christmas Album
• 1969: What About Today?
• 1971: Stoney End
• 1971: Barbra Joan Streisand
• 1973: Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments
• 1974: The Way We Were
• 1974: ButterFly
• 1975: Lazy Afternoon
• 1976: Classical Barbra
• 1976: A Star is Born
• 1977: Streisand Superman
• 1978: Songbird
• 1979: Wet
• 1980: Guilty
• 1981: Memories
• 1984: Emotion
• 1985: The Broadway Album
• 1988: Till I Loved You
• 1993: Back to Broadway
• 1997: Higher Ground
• 1999: A Love Like Ours
• 2001: Christmas Memories
• 2003: The Movie Album
• 2005: Guilty Pleasures
• 2009: Love Is the Answer
• 2011: What Matters Most

Filmography[link]

References[link]