The One and Only: Barbra Streisand

I first saw her and heard her gorgeous voice in ''Hello Dolly'' that was the moment when my life was irrevocably changed by her. I felt truly alive for the first time when I heard her sing. I knew that I had never heard a voice like hers before not in my entire life and I was sure I never would again. To my dismay the film was already half over and there was no one who I knew that could tell me the name of the film or hers. I had lost the love of my life before I'd ever really found her. It wasn't until a year later that what some may consider coincidence, but what I call fate happened when as an avid lover of old films and musicals in particular I happened to pick out from the library or maybe it was my mother who picked it out the film "Hello Dolly" of which I had no idea was the one that I had partly seen before. When I saw her again I knew I'd never let her go.

She was everything that I had remembered: young, beautiful,elegant, sheer perfection and she made me laugh with her matchmaking antics.Her voice had me swooning by the sweet beauty of it, the power, but most of all the expression in her voice and on her face. She is an actress who sings, not a singer who acts. Barbra could do and say anything and it was perfect to me. I knew that I would do everything I could to be just like her in every way possible.

 

From that day forward I prayed literally every night to have a voice like Barbra Streisand's, I started taking voice lessons around the same time wanting to reach the impossible; being just like Barbra needless to say that day has never come. I borrowed "Hello Dolly" over and over again from the library as often as I was allowed to rent it until the day I got my own copy. Soon after I purchased my first of many Barbra cds. It was different from the Broadway tunes of " Hello Dolly" it was much lighter and at first I was slightly dissapointed not by her voice ,but by the style only for a moment though because that's when my taste in music changed to match whatever she was singing. Style of music no longer mattered all that mattered was hearing her sing and Barbra can sing to lift a soul to every possible height and depth and take you somewhere you never dreamed existed.

My mother and I haunted various pawn shops buying cds, records, films, and photos of Barbra's my eventual goal being of course to own everything possible that had her name on it. I would constantly watch her different films that I now owned " Hello Dolly, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Funny Girl, Funny Lady and The Way We Were" the last three always made me cry since Barbra should always get and keep her man in the end I always thought. As for my acting skills I would write out different lines that Barbra spoke in her films and I would practice them aloud in front of the mirror. My most favourite line to rehearse was her famous line from Funny girl " Hello, Gorgeous!'' I of course would always be thinking of her while I said it.

'' I Hated singing. I wanted to be an actress. But I don't think I'd have made it any other way.

http://www.divasthesite.com/Singing_Divas/Quotes/Quotes_Barbra_Streisand.htm

I would come up with all these fantasies in my head of what it would have been like to have been Jewish and Barbra's daughter. I would imagine that I was her long lost daughter that had been hidden away until the perfect time when she came for me. I of course still loved and adored my own mother and family, but what can I say I was obsessed. I also found out through my mother that I had almost been born half Jewish since for a time she had dated a Jewish clock maker, but it was not to be.

My new dream as soon as I found out that Barbra had a son was of course to marry him as quickly as possible. It didn't matter that I was thirteen at the time and her son was already much older. I wanted to be a part of her family, to just be near her ,so I was terribly disappointed to find out that he was forever out of my reach since he's not attracted to women. There went another dream.

I had my chance once when I was around fourteen to marry a Jewish man straight from Israel, but I missed it and let him get away probably since I was still preoccupied with my plans of trying to seduce Jason ''who cares if he was gay?'' I would find a way into his heart.

'' I've considered having my nose fixed. But I didn't trust anyone enough. If I could do it myself with a mirror....''

http://www.divasthesite.com/Singing_Divas/Quotes/Quotes_Barbra_Streisand.htm

'' I don't care what you say about me. Just be sure to spell my name wrong.'' 

http://www.divasthesite.com/Singing_Divas/Quotes/Quotes_Barbra_Streisand.htm

 

My desire to be like her spanned much more then just artistically. I've contemplated converting to Judaism if they'll have me, and I'm still planning on traveling to Israel and learning Hebrew. I have tried some Jewish cooking of my own making this dessert called "Stuffed Monkeys", but there aren't any monkeys in it which I never got. I would put my hair in updos like she sometimes did and I had my sister cut my bangs to try and look like Barbara's. The hair cutting was a disaster, my bangs were too short and to my utter disappointment I didn't look anymore like Barbra then I had before .

 

I love Barbra's nose and was so glad that she never trusted anyone enough to change it for her. I've even thought about getting a nose job to try and look more Jewish like her, I just haven't had the money to do it as of yet. Instead of writing like other girls the last name of a boy they liked with their first name I would write Streisand with mine and I of course would constantly be writing on my school papers I love Barbra Streisand. I was also so very blessed and saw it as a sign of special favor with Barbra since by birth I had been given the middle name of Barbra although with the traditional spelling, but who's counting the a's in the name anyways.

I was ridiculed for loving Barbra since I grew up in a time when most young people though not all couldn't realize what a real star looked and sounded like. They settled for something that could hardly be called talent. A poor reflection of what was.

It was always upsetting whenever someone would try and say that Barbra wasn't the greatest singer in the world and I would just say to them ''are you crazy or something?'' How can you possibly hear her voice and not be instantly mesmerized by her.

Over the years I would borrow autobiographies about Barbra. I loved knowing every detail and aspect of her personality, career, her entire life really. I love it how she cares immensely about detail, her sense of humor and how she says what she feels like saying; for instance when she said to Mike Wallace on P.M. East P.M. West in 1961 '' I like the fact that you are provoking. But don't provoke me." For myself I would never say something like that since I'm very shy ,but I admire Barbra for saying it.

I'm always amazed by what she has accomplished in her lifetime starting from her teens and is still accomplishing. She has played so many different creative roles in her life as a singer, film and theatre actress, composer, producer and director. She has won numerous awards including Acadamy Awards, for Best Actress and Best Original Song, Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, Golden Globe Awards. Amid her other accomplishments Barbra is also one of the few entertainers with the honor of having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award.

Her's is certainly a life to be envied and imitated. The only problem being is that who can ever follow an act like hers? Sure the world can try just like they can try to outshine all the stars in the heavens, but only one woman can do that and her name is Barbra.

As of yet I haven't met Barbra or heard her sing in person and so I'm left hoping that someday it will come to be; though regardless of whether I ever meet her or not Barbra has given me something to aspire to and she has made the world more beautiful to me. I'll always love her, probably more than she'll ever know.