Barbara Streisand
Movement-builder and actress/singer/director/writer/composer/producer/designer/author/photographer/activist Barbra Streisand is the only artist ever to receive Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, National Medal of Arts and Peabody Awards and France’s Légion d’Honneur as well as the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She is also the first female film director to receive the Kennedy Center Honors. In 2015, President Barack Obama presented her with the highest civilian honor the United States bestows, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
She won Oscars for both Best Actress (“Funny Girl”) and Best Original Song (for her composition of “Evergreen” which has since become a standard.) She also was nominated for Best Actress for “The Way We Were.” The three films she directed received 14 Oscar nominations. Her recordings have earned her ten Grammy Awards, including and Grammy’s Lifetime Achievement and Legend Awards.
She is now also the only recording artist or group to achieve number one albums in each of six consecutive decades. She has a total of ten. After the artist earned her latest Number One for “Partners” on September 22, 2014, Billboard summed up Barbra Streisand’s recording achievements in the following manner:
“Barbra Streisand Makes History with “Partners,” Becoming Only Recording Artist with Number One Albums in Six Consecutive Decades – It’s official – Barbra Streisand’s ‘Partners’ has entered the Billboard 200 chart at number one, making her the only recording artist in history to have a number one release in six consecutive decades. Ms. Streisand is the best-selling female recording artist in history. She is the only woman to make the All-Time Top 10 Best Selling Artists list. She also now has the longest span of number one albums in history; just under 50 years. She first landed at the top of the chart in October 1964 with ‘People.’”
The Grammy-nominated “Partners,” Billboard confirmed, is Ms. Streisand’s 33rd album to make it into the Top 10 on the US charts. She is the only female artist to have achieved that milestone, with her new triumph tying her with Frank Sinatra for second with only the Rolling Stones ahead of them.
