Following guest appearances on various television shows, she signed to Columbia Records—retaining full artistic control in exchange for accepting lower pay, an arrangement that continued throughout her career.

[25][26] In August 1943, a few months after Streisand's first birthday, her father died at age 34 from complications from an epileptic seizure, possibly the result of a head injury years earlier.

[27]: 5  After renting a small apartment on 48th Street in the heart of the theater district, she accepted any job she could involving the stage, and at every opportunity, she "made the rounds" of the casting offices.

This nutty little kook had one of the most breathtaking voices I'd ever heard ... when she was finished and I turned off the machine, I needed a long moment before I dared look up at her.Dennen grew enthusiastic and he convinced her to enter a talent contest at the Lion, a gay nightclub in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.

"[27]: 7 Dennen now wanted to expose Streisand to his vast record collection of female singers, including Billie Holiday, Mabel Mercer, Ethel Waters, and Édith Piaf.

"[44] According to biographer Christopher Nickens, hearing other great female singers benefited her style, as she began creating different emotional characters when performing, which gave her singing a greater range.

She can sing as loud as Ethel Merman and as persuasively as Lena or Ella, or as brassy as a Sophie Tucker ... and only Barbra Streisand can turn "Cry Me a River" into something comparable to Enrico Caruso having his first bash at Pagliacci.

Also that spring, she participated in a 25th anniversary studio recording of Pins and Needles, the classic popular front musical originated in 1937 by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.

", 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).

A compilation spanning Streisand's entire career to date, it featured over 70 tracks of live performances, greatest hits, rarities, and previously unreleased material.

[63][64] In 1993, The 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".

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 that also featured a duet with Céline Dion.

Reviews were mixed, with many critics complaining 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.

[83] In May 2016, Streisand announced the upcoming album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway, to be released in August following a nine-city concert tour, Barbra: The Music, The Mem'ries, The Magic, including performances in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and a return to her hometown of Brooklyn.

[89][90][91] Streisand's first film was a reprise of her Broadway hit Funny Girl (1968), an artistic and commercial success directed by Hollywood veteran William Wyler.

Along with Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, and later Steve McQueen, Streisand formed First Artists Production Company in 1969 so that actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves.

But for some reason, Hollywood turned against her ... there was a lack of sympathy toward her ... Christ, she could have played Cleopatra better than Liz Taylor, with her enormous power and the subtlety of her singing ... She is one of the great actresses and she hasn't been well used.

[100] According to The New York Times editor Andrew Rosenthal, in an interview with Allan Wolper, "The one thing that makes Barbra Streisand crazy is when nobody gives her the credit for having written Yentl.

Paramount Pictures gave the green light to begin shooting the road trip comedy My Mother's Curse in early 2011, with Seth Rogen playing Streisand's character's son.

Plans emerged in 2015 for Streisand to direct a feature biopic about the 18th-century Russian empress Catherine the Great, based on the top 2014 Black List script produced by Gil Netter,[105] with Keira Knightley starring.

[148] In the early years of her career, Streisand's interest in politics was limited, with the exception of her participation in activities of the anti-nuclear group Women Strike for Peace in 1961 and 1962.

[153] The next year, in association with liberal activist Stanley Sheinbaum and the American Civil Liberties Union, Streisand performed a benefit at the mansion of film mogul Jennings Lang to pay for the legal defense of Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame.

Accompanied by a small combo including Marvin Hamlisch on piano, Streisand took paid song requests from the star-studded audience and by telephone to bring the night's total to $50,000.

[154] In 1984, Streisand joined Jane Fonda and ten other television and film industry notables to establish the activist group Hollywood Women's Political Committee (HWPC), the membership eventually growing to 300.

[165] In an October 2018 interview with Emma Brockes of The Guardian, Streisand discussed the theme of her new album Walls: the danger she believed President Donald Trump posed towards the United States.

[185] Vulture honored her enduring legacy saying her works influence "extends to Céline Dion, the 1980s output of Lionel Richie and Luther Vandross, and the more maudlin ballads of Mariah Carey, Adele, and Whitney Houston.

"[223] As one of the most acclaimed actresses, singers, directors, writers, composers, producers, designers, photographers and activists in every medium that she's worked in, Streisand is the only artist who is concurrently a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and Actors' Equity Association, as well as the honorary chairwoman of the board of directors of Hadassah's International Research Institute on Women.

The suit was dismissed and the resultant publicity prompted hundreds of thousands of people to download the photo, which had been accessed only four times prior to Streisand initiating legal action.

It's a friendly match, typically played in or around April, between the rival clubs and is named in Streisand's honour as she is known to have a large fan base in both the gay and the Jewish communities.