Babs: I'm Not A Diva

She said as she sat in the host's chair in order to show her most flattering side.

Headline Of The Day

Via the Washington Post:

This is how you know you have reached true capital-”D” Diva Status: the “Tonight Show” clears its entire slate of guests just for you. Barbra Streisand will be Jimmy Fallon’s only guest on Sept. 15, when she appears to promote her new album, “Partners,” which comes out Sept. 16. The last time she was on the show, she was promoting her debut album with Johnny Carson in 1963. It will be interesting to see if and how “Tonight Show” set decorators accommodate Streisand’s “good side.” Streisand famously favors the left side of her face, so much so that she’s even unseated Oprah Winfrey — when Streisand did interviews with Oprah, she sat stage left and Oprah sat stage right, a complete reversal of Oprah’s normal guest-host arrangement. The Funny Girl’s a huge get, so NBC’s bound to make whatever concessions necessary to get Babs in the building

Streisand is expected to perform so it seems like there will have to be another guest since the new album is all duets.

Babs Issues Trailer For Partners Album

Babs Joins Instagram

You gotta love the amount of styling that went into this selfie.

Wingnuts Issue Pop Music Blacklist

The wingnuts over at Townhall have issued a "blacklist" of artists that God-fearing patriots should refuse to support.  

When it comes to musicians who attack conservatives, Christians, Republicans, America -- or alternately, embrace the Left, don't give them your money. Don't buy their albums or their T-shirts and don’t go to their shows. Even if you do like their music, don't pay for it and don't talk it up publicly. Fans are oxygen for these people -- starve them of it and let other musicians start to worry about the reaction if they go after us.

That's not unfair; it's just restoring balance. People who rely on the goodwill of the general public shouldn't be trashing the people who pay their bills. Artists should be flattered, not outraged when Republican politicians want to use their songs. Conservatives in the music industry shouldn't be cowed into silence by threats and abuse while liberal musicians smear the conservatives, Christians, Republicans and patriots who buy their records with no repercussions.

On the list: Madonna, Moby, Bette Midler, Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen, Psy, Sheryl Crow, Rage Against The Machine, Barbra Streisand, and Kanye West.

DUET: Babs & Jason Gould

Babs Comes Home To Brooklyn

Babs - I Think It's Gonna Rain Today

Taken from her coming album culled from unreleased master tapes, here's Barbra Streisand's 1971 cover of the Randy Newman standard. Newman himself plays piano.

Babs To Issue Unreleased Material

Barbra Streisand has plumbed her vault of never-released master tapes to create a new package of tracks, some of which date back to 1963. Via press release:

Highlights include: "Didn't We" written by Jimmy Webb - recorded in 1970 for an unreleased album project titled The Singer; the standard "Willow Weep For Me" - an unreleased track recorded in 1967 for Simply Streisand, arranged by Ray Ellis noted for his legendary work with Billie Holiday; A striking version of Randy Newman's "I Think It's Going Rain Today," with Barbra on vocals and Newman on piano - from the 1971 Stoney End sessions; an unreleased studio version of "With One More Look At You" from A Star Is Born; Two tracks from the unreleased sequel to the acclaimed The Broadway Album, titled Back To Broadway - "Home" (from The Wiz) and "How Are Things In Glocca Morra ? / Heather On The Hill" (from Finian's Rainbow / Brigadoon). Reflecting on the album, Streisand noted, "The thing I'm happiest about is that I still have great affection for all these songs. They appealed to me at the time…and still do. Listening now, I actually think to myself, 'The girl wasn't half bad.'"

The CD goes on sale October 9th.

Babs Confirms Brooklyn Concert

Ticket information.

Babs Concert In Brooklyn?

Fan sites are buzzing after Ticketmaster posted then immediately deleted a Barbra Streisand concert date at Brooklyn's still unfinished Barclays Center.

Ms. Streisand’s name had been scrubbed from Ticketmaster’s Barclays listings. And an eerie and oddly constrained silence was upon the lips of those who could speak to the facts. “We are not confirming this,” said a Barclays spokesman, Barry Baum, when asked if Ms. Streisand was coming. “I cannot confirm anything, on the record, off the record, between the record,” said Ms. Streisand’s longtime spokesman, Ken Sunshine. A spokeswoman for Ticketmaster, Jacqueline Peterson, wrote in an e-mail, “We don’t have anything additional to share.”

Barclays Center, the future home of the Brooklyn Nets, is scheduled for an official opening at the end of September with a concert by Nets co-owner Jay-Z.

Babs Turns 70 Today

And here's her first ever charting single, People. The clip below is from her Oscar-winning performance in the 1968 movie version of Funny Girl, but the single reached #5 on the Billboard pop chart when it was first released from the 1964 original Broadway cast recording. Yes kids, Babs had her first hit record 48 years ago.

#1 Thirty-Five Years Ago Today

It won Babs an Oscar for Best Original Song and a Grammy for Song Of The Year. And I vaguely recall that it may have been the theme song for my senior prom.

Swag Tuesday

Courtesy of the Karpel Group, today's Swag Tuesday prize is What Matters Most, the brand new album from the legendary Barbra Streisand, which was released nationwide today in all formats.

The incomparable Barbra Streisand's long-cherished desire to release an album of music with lyrics exclusively written by her collaborators and friends, Alan and Marilyn Bergman, is achieved on What Matters Most- Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The new album, which Streisand personally produced, is comprised of ten Bergman songs which Streisand has never previously recorded. Included in the set are the Academy Award winning songs "The Windmill of your Mind" (from the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair); "So Many Stars" (originally a hit song for Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66); "Nice 'n' Easy" (popularized by Frank Sinatra); and "That Face" (first recorded by Fred Astaire) . The CD is packaged in a jewel box with a 24-page color booklet.

We have five copies of What Matters Most to give away. Enter to win by commenting on this post. Please remember to leave your email address in the text of your comment. Winners will by chosen randomly after entries close at midnight on Thursday, west coast time. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.

Quote Of The Day - Barbra Streisand

"I’ve endured Larry Kramer’s outbursts in the past, not wishing to dignify them with a response. But at a time when we are all pulling together to achieve such giant steps toward gay equality, it is anguishing to me to have my devotion to this cause so distorted. I think my efforts for the gay community and my immersion in securing its constitutional entitlement and other equitable rights is quite evident and a matter of record. [snip]

"I think it’s unfair to blame me for the movie [The Normal Heart] not getting made. After all, Larry has had the rights for the last 15 years and he couldn’t get it made, either. Those are the facts, and none of this is news to Larry. More recently, he sent me a note before giving the project to another director, asking me again if I wanted to direct it—but only with his screenplay. As a filmmaker, I couldn’t have my hands tied like that. What if I needed to make changes? What if I needed to have something rewritten? Sadly, I turned his offer down and wished him well. It’s been very hard for me to find a piece that I feel as passionate about. I will always believe in Larry’s play and its powerful theme about everyone’s right to love." - Barbara Streisand, responding to Larry Kramer's claim that she wanted to to rewrite the movie to make the doctor character (to be played by Babs) the real star.

Full Streisand's full response on her website.

Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand

This has got to be one of the strangest collaborations ever. Too many cameos to count. From DJ/producer Armand Van Helden.

HomoQuotable - Larry Kramer

"Barbra Streisand is a hypocrite. If she had made my play about AIDS, The Normal Heart, in 1986, when she first acquired the rights, only to sit on them for a full ten years without filming it, she could have done something for gay rights when we were really in the sewer of death. But no, she chose to go off and make such vitally important and classic movies as Nuts and The Mirror Has Two Faces. Barbra Streisand cares about gay rights as much as i care about spending a zillion dollars decorating a colony of houses in Malibu. As the mother of a son who is not only gay but HIV positive, she should be ashamed of herself.

"Fortunately and at last, an exciting movie version is now being prepared by openly gay director-producer Ryan Murphy to star Mark Ruffalo. i hope it will prove that the best thing that happened for The Normal Heart is that Barbra Streisand didn't make it. I think it is important for all her many gay fans around the world, which certainly had once included me, to know the above." - Larry Kramer, responding to Barbra Streisand's statement of support for the overturn of Prop 8.

Jennifer Aniston As 1960's Babs

Does it work?

Music Stars Record For Haiti Relief

Taking advantage of those in town for the Grammys, yesterday producer Quincy Jones gathered a galaxy of pop stars for a re-recording of 1984's We Are The World. Among the 70 artists lending their voices: Beyonce, Natalie Cole, Barbra Streisand, Usher, Celine Dion, Taylor Swift, Gladys Knight, Rihanna, Harry Connick, Kayne West, Toni Braxton, LL Cool J and Wyclef Jean.

Meaning in the UK, American Idol host Simon Cowell gathered a similar group of stars for a recording of a cover of REM's Everybody Hurts. Taking part: Susan Boyle, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey, and many others. Below is the advance audio. Both tracks will be released in the next week.

Babs! In Concert! In NYC!

I'm not a fan but I know my homos well enough to expect a little bit of squealing about this.

Forty-eight years after she first appeared in the club opening for Miles Davis, Barbra Streisand will celebrate the release of “Love Is the Answer,” her new album of jazz and popular standards, by performing a selection of its songs at the Village Vanguard on Sept. 26, according to her publicist, Ken Sunshine. The storied jazz club is a far cry in both size and atmosphere from Ms. Streisand’s usual settings, like the arenas where she played her last farewell tour in 2006. A chance to get free tickets to the Vanguard shows will be available only to those who either pre-order the CD or register for a lottery online. Full details and rules can be found on barbrastreisand.com.

Only 100 fans will be chosen from the lottery.

(Tipped by JMG reader Band)