One of the biggest and best-loved superstars in the world, Barbra Streisand, made a world exclusive appearance with Jonathan Ross on his talk show on Friday Night, October 2, 2009. The full episode will air tonight on BBC AMERICA at 9pm (EST).
In her first live British TV interview this century, the unique edition of Jonathan's Friday night talk show, Friday Night With Streisand & Ross, entirely devoted to a celebration of her legendary life as a performing icon in front of an audience including a number of international competition winners.
As well as discussing her extraordinary career as a double Oscar-winning artist, actress of stage and screen, concert performer, film director, movie producer, screenwriter, songwriter and best album-selling female recording artist ever, Streisand also performed live in the studio intimate material from her number one hit new album Love Is The Answer as well as one of her all-time classic hits.
Barbra Streisand's album Love is the Answer debuts #1 on the US charts by selling 180,415 for the week of September 29th. She has increased her prior record of length of time between her first #1 album (People, 1964) and her most recent.
This unprecedented success ties her with the Beatles for 3rd place behind Frank Sinatra (41) and Rolling Stones (36) for top 10 album first week sales. Setting numerous records that may never be exceeded, her new album topped a powerful field of new albums to win #1. Although no other artist or act had matched her prior record of four straight decades at #1, the new achievement may be a bar that can never be equaled.
The first full-length collection of new studio recordings from eight-time Grammy award winner Barbra Streisand is her first studio work since 2005's Guilty Pleasures.
Love Is The Answer showcases the artist as a singer of emotional clarity, depth and maturity, offering the listener a selection of heartfelt late-night meditations on love's powers, heartbreaks and solaces.
Love Is The Answer provides an opportunity for Streisand to work for the first time with the Grammy-winning Canadian jazz artist Diana Krall and her quartet (piano, guitar, bass, drums) who bring a refined and sensual poignancy to the album's sophisticated and subtle accompaniments.
Rounding out the album's smoky after-hours ambience with his sublime orchestrations is the legendary songwriter ("The Shadow of Your Smile") and Grammy-winning arranger Johnny Mandel (who worked with Streisand on her 1993 Back to Broadway album and arranged/co-produced Krall's 1998 Grammy-winning When I Look In Your Eyes).
The deluxe version of Love Is The Answer is a two-disc package that features the Mandel arranged orchestra versions on disc one and quartet counterparts on disc two featuring Barbra accompanied only by quartet (piano, bass, guitar & drums).
Included among the highlights of Love Is The Answer are:
"Make Someone Happy," a song from the 1960s musical "Do Re Mi," with lyrics by Comden and Green and music by Jule Styne, who wrote the music for Streisand's breakout performance in "Funny Girl";
"In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning" - the jazz standard closely associated with Frank Sinatra.
"If You Go Away (Ne Me Quitte Pas)" - A quintessential version of the Jacques Brel standard performed in English and French.
"Spring Can Really Hang You Up," a song Streisand first sang in a St. Louis club at the age of 18. This is her first studio produced version of this jazz standard.
"Gentle Rain" a gentle bossa nova from "Black Orpheus," the motion picture which introduced the world to the rhythms of Brazilian music.
"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," the quintessential dreamy standard, originally written as a show tune by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach for the 1933 operetta "Roberta," covered by Nat "King" Cole and the Platters, among others;
"Some Other Time," a rarely-covered gem composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Comden and Green from the 1944 musical "On The Town."
