{"id":13768,"date":"2026-03-16T12:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=13768"},"modified":"2026-03-16T12:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T12:24:06","slug":"no-one-said-a-word-and-then-the-entire-academy-awards-auditorium-rose-to-their-feet-as-that-voice-rang-out-after-nearly-six-years-without-performing-live-the-legendary-barbra-str","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=13768","title":{"rendered":"NO ONE SAID A WORD.\u201d \u2014 And then the entire Academy Awards auditorium rose to their feet as that voice rang out. After nearly six years without performing live, the legendary Barbra Streisand unexpectedly took the stage and sang the opening notes of \u201cThe Way We Were,\u201d the song associated with the classic film starring Robert Redford. Over 3,000 audience members held their breath. When Streisand repeated Redford\u2019s last words: \u201cBabs, I love you dearly\u2026 and I always will,\u201d many in the audience silently wiped away tears. The final note faded \u2014 and the entire auditorium rose to their feet in a nearly minute-long round of applause, a heartbreaking farewell to a Hollywood icon."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Barbra Streisand Honors Robert Redford With Stirring \u2018The Way We Were\u2019 Performance at Oscars<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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Streisand\u2019s appearance on the telecast was much-rumored but still brought a significant bolt of electricity to the proceedings, given that she has been effectively retired from live performance since performing a handful of dates in 2019 after she wrapped up her \u201cThe Music\u2026 The Mem\u2019ries\u2026 The Magic!\u201d tour in 2017 and has been open about how singing live gives her \u201cthe willies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I read the first script of \u2018The Way We Were,\u2019 I could only imagine one man in the role and that was Robert Redford,\u201d Streisand began. \u201cBut he turned it down because he said the character had no backbone. He doesn\u2019t stand for anything, and he was right. So many drafts later, Bob finally agreed to do it. He was a brilliant, subtle actor, and we had a wonderful time playing off each other because we never quite knew what the other one was going to do in a scene. And I\u2019m thrilled that \u201c\u2018The way we were\u201d\u2018The Way We Were\u2019 is now considered a classic love story, but it\u2019s also about a dark time in our history, the late \u201940s and early \u201950s, when people were informing on each other and subject to loyalty oaths.<\/p>\n

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\"Barbra<\/p>\n

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\u201cNow, Bob had real backbone on and off the screen. He spoke up to defend freedom of the press, protect the environment and encouraged new voices at his Sundance Institute, some of whom are up for Oscars tonight, which is so great. He was thoughtful and bold. I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail, and won the Academy Award for best director, and I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me. He\u2019d call me Babs, and I\u2019d say, \u2018Bob, you know, do I look like a Babs?I\u2019m not a Babs, you know.\u2019 But the way he said it made me laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd many years later we were chatting on the phone about the usual \u2014 politics, art, our favorites, and as we were hanging up, he said, \u2018Babs, I love you dearly and I always will.\u2019 And in the last note I ever wrote to Bob, I ended it with, \u2018I love you, too, and I signed it \u2018Babs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Barbra<\/p>\n

There was precedent for Streisand reviving \u201cThe Way We Were\u201d on the Oscars: She previously did it in 2013 in tribute to composer Marvin Hamlisch during that telecast\u2019s In Memoriam segment.<\/p>\n

Redford died in September at age 89. At the time, Streisand remembered him in an\u00a0Instagram post. \u201cEvery day on the set of\u00a0\u2018The Way We Were\u2019\u00a0was exciting, intense and pure joy,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWe were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yes, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie. Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting \u2014 and one of the finest actors ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cThe last time I saw him, when he came to lunch, we discussed art and decided to send each other our first drawings. He was one of a kind and I\u2019m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him.\u201d<\/p>\n