VIDEO: President Obama Gets 'Verklempt' Awarding Medal of Freedom to Barbra Streisand

Star of stage and screen, Barbra Streisand received the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award at the White House yesterday. The award is the Nation's highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. Watch the video!

In his presentation of the award, President Obama commented:

We also celebrate those who have stirred our souls and lifted our spirits as icons of the stage, screen and song. Born in Brooklyn to a middle-class Jewish family -- I didn't know you were Jewish, Barbra -- (laughter) -- Barbra Streisand attended her first Broadway show at age 14 and remembers thinking, "I could go up on that stage and play any role without any trouble at all." That's what's called chutzpah. (Laughter.) And it helps when you've got amazing talent, all of which made her a global sensation -- one whose voice has been described as "liquid diamonds," and whose fans have considered bronzing her used coffee cups. (Laughter.) She has sold more albums in America than any woman in history. She has collected just about every honor and award that there is. I couldn't believe she hadn't gotten this one. (Laughter.) Off the stage, she has been a passionate advocate for issues like heart disease and women's equality. I'm getting all "verklempt" just thinking about it. (Laughter.)

Streisand is one of our Nation's most gifted talents. Her body of work includes extraordinary singing, acting, directing, producing, songwriting, and she is one of the few performers to receive an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and a Tony. Her performance in 1968's Funny Girl endeared her to Americans for generations, and she won her first Academy Award for her role in that film. In 1984, she became the first woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Director, which she won for the motion picture Yentl.

Streisand is also a recipient of four Peabody Awards, in addition to the National Medal of Arts and Kennedy Center Honors. In 2009, she endowed the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, which works to correct gender inequality in the research of a disease which each year kills more women than men.

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