The actress and musician began working on the project in the late Nineties, years after former First Lady Jackie Kennedy first approached her about writing a book. A series of starts and stops followed, leading to the eventual release of the autobiography in 2023. Now, it’s time to reap the rewards, or rather, awards.
Streisand’s narration of My Name Is Barbra was nominated for Audiobook of the Year at the 2025 Audie Awards. The recording is up against George Orwell’s 1984, as read by Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others; Richard Powers’ Playground: A Novel, as read by Edoardo Ballerini, Robin Siegerman, Eunice Wong, and others; Claire Oshetsky’s Poor Deer, as narrated by Sophie Amoss; and the Dan Slepian self-narrated The Sing Sing Files.
My Name Is Barbra will also compete in the Best Autobiography/Memoir category. Her fellow nominees include Elton John, for Farewell Yellow Brick Road; Sebastian Junger, for In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife; Salman Rushdie, for Knife; and Kelly Bishop’s The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir.
Her autobiography matches the commanding noise she makes. Almost 1,000 pages long, it lacks an index because Streisand – who always demanded what she calls through clenched teeth “creative control” – insists on directing the way we read and debars us from looking up titbits about her adolescent exploits as a shoplifter, a night spent playing footsie with Ralph Fiennes, or a romp with Pierre Trudeau that involves the Canadian prime minister swimming naked in an icy lake. (Full review on The Guardian)
The singer and actor recalled her fraught relationship with Charlie Chaplin’s son when they both starred in Funny Girl on Broadway in the 1960s.
“I don’t even like to talk about it,” Streisand, 81, told the BBC before the release of My Name Is Barbra. “It’s just a person who had a crush on me, – which was unusual – and when I said to him, ‘I don’t want to be involved with you’, he turned on me in such a way that was very cruel.
“He started muttering under his breath while I was talking on stage. Terrible words. Curse words. And he wouldn’t look into my eyes anymore. And you know, when you’re acting, it’s really important to look at the other person, and react to them.”
The experience, Streisand said, left her “flustered” and contributed to her quitting live performance. But throughout her career, she said she also encountered other male collaborators who proved problematic.
These included Walter Matthau, who humiliated her on the set of Hello, Dolly! by screaming: “I have more talent in my farts than you have in your whole body”; and Frank Pierson, who publicly rubbished the 1976 version of A Star is Born (which he directed), calling Streisand a control freak who constantly demanded more closeups. (Read the full interview on The Guardian)
Taylor Swift has surpassed Barbra Streisand to secure the most number one albums for any female artist in history.
The two artists were previously tied with 11 number one albums each. Since the release of Taylor's 12th number one LP - the recently-released Speak Now (Taylor's Version) - the Bad Blood singer, 33, has now broken her draw with Barbra, 81.
Speak Now (Taylor's Version) was released on 7 July and shot to number 1 on its debut. In vinyl alone, it has sold 268,500 copies and is second only to Taylor's tenth album Midnights for the biggest vinyl sales of the modern era, reports Pitchfork.
The Cruel Summer singer has become the first living artist to have four albums in the top 10 at the same time since 1966 - with Folklore, Lover, Midnights, and Speak Now (Taylor's Version) all currently populating the top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Upon its release on July 7, Taylor Swift scored her 10th UK Number One album with ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’, outselling the rest of the Top 10 combined. Along with the full re-recorded original album, a host of ‘From The Vault’ tracks were also shared, featuring collaborations with Fall Out Boy and Paramore’s Hayley Williams.
