Barbra Streisand Thanks Fans for Reaching #1

Barbra Streisand's official web site has just released the following letter from Barbra:

I was just told that Love Is The Answer came out at Number One, and I want to share that honor with all of you.. my fans, my friends.. who have made that possible. I want to share it as well with Diana Krall and Tommy LiPuma and everyone who worked on the album... with Jay Landers and especially my manager Marty Erlichman and my team at Columbia Records. You'd think that getting the news that you've been Number One in five consecutive decades would make you feel old, but this makes me feel young. Thank you all.

Love, Barbra

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.

Streisand is the #1 female album-selling recording artist in history and the only woman to make the Top 10 all time best selling artists list. Her accomplishments include 50 gold, 30 platinum and 13 multi-platinum albums. Barbra's previous number #1 albums include: People (1964), The Way We Were (1974), Greatest Hits Volume II (1979), Guilty (1980), The Broadway Album (1985), Back to Broadway (1993) and Higher Ground (1997).

The first full-length collection of new studio recordings from Barbra Streisand since 2005's Guilty Pleasures, and first new Barbra Streisand album since Live In Concert 2006, Love Is The Answer presents the artist as a cabaret and jazz singer of emotional clarity, depth and maturity, offering the listener a warm and intimate selection of late night meditations on love's powers, heartbreaks and solaces.

Among the many accolades for the album, Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times wrote: "like a great jazz singer, lending an earthy emotional cast to the moment."

Last week, Streisand returned to the New York's legendary Village Vanguard (where she auditioned 48 years ago) and performed songs from Love is the Answer for an intimate crowd of friends and lucky fans. As stated in The New York Times: "Concerts by Ms. Streisand are rare, but the scale of Saturday's show was exceptional enough to briefly upend the natural social order of celebrity events."

An artist of unparalleled accomplishments in multiple entertainment fields, Streisand has made her mark as an award winning actress of stage and screen, recording artist, concert performer, movie producer, film director, screenwriter and songwriter. Having earned two Oscars (Best Actress and Best Song), five Emmys, ten Golden Globes, eight Grammys, a special Tony Award (in 1970 as "Star of the Decade"), and two Cable Ace awards, she is the only performer to hold honors from all of those institutions. In addition, Streisand is a recipient of the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award, the National Endowment for the Arts National Medal of Arts, the prestigious Peabody Award, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In the past year, Barbra Streisand was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor for Exemplary Lifetime Achievement in The Performing Arts. Her most recent motion picture, "Meet The Fockers," became and remains the only live-action comedy to exceed the half billion dollar box office mark.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.