Streisand Will Give First Concert in Israel
Image by Getty Images
Babs is heading to the Holy Land.
Image by Getty Images
Barbara Streisand will sing on June 18 at the opening ceremony of Shimon Peres’s annual Presidential Conference, which this year will honor the president’s 90th birthday.
Although the 70-year-old iconic singer has visited Israel privately a number of times, this will be her first official public appearance there. It was reported that it was Israeli concert promoter Shuki Weiss, working closely with Live Nation, who sealed the deal to bring Streisand to Israel as part of a rare European tour.
Because of the involvement of Weiss, who is known for bringing big names to Israel (including Depeche Mode and Alicia Keys this year), there is speculation that Streisand may not just sing her version of “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” but might actually agree to play a larger venue. Ynet reports that such a concert would take place either June 15 or 16.
Despite her huge popularity and success, Streisand is not known for performing in front of large audiences. She has only gone on five world tours over the course of her 50-year career. Her latest tour, launched last October, has generated a great deal of excitement. Accordingly, concert organizers in Israel are considering a venue that could hold an audience of 50,000, such as the Ramat Gan Stadium or the Caesarea Amphitheatre.
Despite never having performed in Israel, Streisand has long been a big supporter of the Jewish State. In announcing her upcoming visit to Israel, Israeli websites have been posting a clip of a memorable performance of Streisand speaking to Golda Meir by video-phone hook up and singing Hatikvah at the 1978 Stars Salute Israel show.
Watch Barbra Streisand sing Hatikvah:
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
