She continues to be the highest-selling female recording artist ever and has had number one albums in each of the last four decades. Her number one albums span a period of nearly 35 years, the greatest longevity in that statistic for any solo recording artist. A recent poll by the Reuters news agency identified her as the favorite female singer of the 20th Century and Frank Sinatra as the favorite male singer.

Streisand's 57th album, "Christmas Memories," was released in October 2001. It's her first full-length studio album since 1999's "A Love Like Ours" and her first new recording since her 1999-2000 New Year's Eve millennium performances captured on "Timeless - Live In Concert." "Christmas Memories" is Streisand's first seasonal collection since "A Christmas Album," which has been certified quintuple- platinum by the RIAA and has re-entered the charts each year since its 1967 release. An album of inspirational music for all seasons, "Christmas Memories" is "lovingly dedicated" to Stephan Weiss, the husband of designer Donna Karan and a close friend of Streisand's, who passed away in June 2001.

Recipient in 1995 of an Honorary Doctorate in Arts and Humanities from Brandeis University, Barbra Streisand is a rare honoree, the only artist to earn Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, Peabody, and the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. The latter accolade, a tribute to her film work as director, performer, writer, producer and composer, was conferred in February 2001. She is the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts' National Medal of Arts and has been honored by France as a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, and in 2004 she accepted The Humanitarian Award from the Human Rights Campaign.

Her most recent motion picture directorial effort, the TriStar Pictures release "The Mirror Has Two Faces," continued the tradition of each Streisand-directed film being accorded Academy Award nominations. The romantic comedy, her third triple effort as director/producer/star, received two Oscar nominations in 1997 and led to Lauren Bacall winning the Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress.

In 1995, Ms. Streisand added to her Emmy Awards, winning two more for her performance in and work as producer of "Barbra Streisand: The Concert." The HBO program earned a total of five Emmy Awards, matching the Emmy achievements of her first TV Special, the one-woman show "My Name Is Barbra," exactly thirty years before. Each of the shows won the coveted Peabody Award as well. "Serving In Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story," the first television dramatic production for her Barwood Films, earned an additional three Emmy trophies, a total of eight Emmys for Ms. Streisand's company in the same year. Ms. Streisand's Barwood Films has followed "Serving in Silence" with a continuing slate of television dramas, each of which addresses important issues.

Ms. Streisand's Millennium New Year's Eve concert, "Timeless," at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, December 31, 1999, set an all-time Ticket Master record for one-day sales of a single event, virtually selling out in the first few hours of sale eight months before the performance. The New Year's concert was widely covered as one of the key events of the worldwide millennium celebration. One of the most talked about and well-reviewed concert productions of all time, "Timeless" was captured for a Valentine's Day 2001 television special, co-directed by its star, which won four Emmys including one for Streisand's performance. The home video/DVD was certified gold and platinum. Her two-night Madison Square Garden engagement in October 2000, and two preceding Los Angeles live appearances at Staple Center, were similarly record-setting successes.

Virtually every aspect of Barbra Streisand's 1994 concert tour was record setting. Those twenty-six appearances were her first paid concerts in nearly three decades, all intervening concerts since 1966 having been fund-raisers for various social or political causes. The tour initiated with the celebrated 1994 New Year's performances at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas and continued to set attendance and box-office records with immediate sellouts in London, Washington D.C., Southern California, Detroit, San Jose, and New York's Madison Square Garden. Over 5 million phone requests were recorded in the first hour when tickets for the first American leg of the tour went on sale. The tour also generated over $10.25 million for charities the artist supports, channeling money to significant causes in each locale. Reflecting Streisand's social concerns, over $3 million went to AIDS organizations, with other gifts addressing such urgencies as women and children in jeopardy, Jewish/Arab relations and agencies working to ameliorate relations between African-Americans and Jews.

"Barbra Streisand: The Concert," the critically lauded film version of the concerts became the highest rated musical event in HBO's history, as well as a quadruple-platinum home video and triple-platinum double album (exceptionally rare for a multi-disc set). In addition to its five Emmy Awards and Peabody Award, it earned three Cable Ace Awards. Six other home videos have been certified gold. . In 2004, "Barbra Streisand - Live at the MGM Grand" was released on DVD, and was quickly certified Platinum. In November 2005, 'Barbra Streisand- The Television Specials' were released in a five-DVD box set - they quickly went quintuple (5x) platinum, six weeks later.

The filmmaker/entertainer was born April 24th in Brooklyn to Diana and Emanuel Streisand. Her father, who passed away when Barbra was 15 months old, was a highly respected teacher and scholar.

An honor student at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, the teenage Streisand plunged, unassisted and without encouragement, into show business by winning a singing contest at a small Manhattan club. She developed a devout and growing following at the clubs which began hiring her, and soon she was attracting music industry attention at such spots as the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel.

Streisand signed a contract with Columbia Records in 1962, and her debut album quickly became the nation's top-selling record by a female vocalist.

Following her award-winning stage debut performance in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale," she was signed to play the great comedienne Fanny Brice in the Broadway production of "Funny Girl." When the curtain came down at the Winter Garden Theatre on March 26, 1964, the star and the show were major hits. Her distinctly original musical-comedy performance won her a second Tony nomination.

Her star on the ascent, she signed a 10-year contract with CBS Television to produce and star in TV specials. The contract gave her complete artistic control, an unheard of concession to an artist so young and inexperienced. The first special, "My Name Is Barbra," earned five Emmy Awards, and the following four shows, including the memorable "Color Me Barbra," earned the highest critical praise and audience ratings. The two aforementioned specials were released 20 years later and became instant top-sellers in the videocassette market.

In 1966, Streisand repeated her "Funny Girl" triumph in London at the Prince of Wales Theatre. London critics voted her the best female lead in a musical for that season.

Few movie debuts have been as auspicious as Streisand's in Columbia Pictures' "Funny Girl." In addition to winning the 1968 Academy Award, she won the Golden Globe and was named Star of the Year by the National Association of Theatre Owners.

After appearing in the films "Hello, Dolly!" and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever," she starred in the non-musical comedy "The Owl and the Pussycat," released in 1970. 1972 brought another resounding comedy hit, "What's Up Doc?," followed by "Up the Sandbox," one of the first American films to deal with the growing women's movement. It was the premiere picture for her own production company, Barwood Films.