Streisand Feted by MusiCares Named Person of the Year
Barbra Streisand will be honored by the Recording Academy as its 2011 MusiCares Person of the Year at its annual dinner and concert on Feb. 11.
The star-studded annual event will fete Streisand for her philanthropic and creative work. Proceeds from the Grammy Week function—which takes place two days prior to the 53rd Grammy Awards ceremony at L.A.'s Staples Center—benefit MusiCares, the Recording Academy's charitable arm.
“Barbra Streisand is a genuine Renaissance woman, someone for whom artistry and philanthropy go hand in hand," Recording Academy president/chief operating officer Neil Portnow said in a statement. “The enormous talent, passion and dedication she brings to her creative projects, whether film, television or music, are matched by the generosity and commitment she devotes to her charitable causes."
A typically glittering Person of the Year recipient, Streisand has been honored with Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe, National Medal of the Arts and Peabody Awards for her work in the movies and on recordings, the stage and TV. She is the only performer to collect No. 1 albums in five consecutive decades. She has sold 71.5 million albums, according to the RIAA.
Her Streisand Foundation has given millions in grant dollars, and she has raised millions more in benefit performances. She has supported AIDS charities, women's and civil rights organizations, at-risk children, environmental causes and Jewish/Arab and Jewish/African-American relations.
Streisand is the 21st MusiCares Person of the Year; she joins such recent honorees as Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Aretha Franklin, Don Henley, James Taylor and Brian Wilson.
