Barbra Streisand reveals stage name suggestion she rejected
Barbra Streisand was advised to change her name to Barbara Sands when she started her career.
The 79-year-old star - the only artist ever to have a number one album in six consecutive decades - refused to remove Streisand from her stage name, but she did erase an "a" from her birth name Barbara to make her moniker more unique.
She said: "People wanted me to be called Barbara Sands.
"I thought, 'What? No. Streisand is my name. I don’t want to change it.' "
Barbra also declined a suggestion to call her debut album 'Sweet and Saucy Streisand', instead opting to name the record - which was released in February 1963 - 'The Barbra Streisand Album'.
Speaking on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon', she added: "For my first record they wanted me to call it 'Sweet and Saucy Streisand'. I am neither too sweet or too saucy.
"My first show, I remember people were asking, 'Where’s my album?'
"So I said, 'Let’s name it what it is. The Barbra Streisand album'. That’s what it is. You know."
The 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers' hitmaker is close to finishing her memoir, but the singer and actress doesn’t want a movie to be made about her until she’s dead.
She recently said: "After I’m gone. Not while I’m alive. No, no, no, no, no, no.
"I’d just say, listen to the truth in my book and portray me truthfully, but not while I’m here.
"I get upset when something’s false or something’s a lie.
"That’s why I wrote the song, ‘Don’t Lie to Me.’
"I couldn’t help making a video. I probably really lost a lot of people, a lot of fans doing that.
"But you have to face the truth. I have to face my own truth.
"I have to face what I think is going on in the world. That’s who I am.
"I just believe in the power of the truth."
