"Barbra Streisand" is a song by

Canadian-American Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship. The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadian ...

DJ duo Duck Sauce. It was released on September 10, 2010. The song topped the charts in Austria, Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, and Switzerland and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. On November 30, 2011, the song received a nomination at the

54th Grammy Awards The 54th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles being broadcast on CBS honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011. LL Cool J hosted the ...

for

Best Dance Recording The Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording (formerly known as Best Dance Recording) is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists f ...

. It was also featured on ''

Just Dance 3 ''Just Dance 3'' is a 2011 dance rhythm game released on the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 with Kinect and Move support respectively for the latter two. It is part of the '' Just Dance'' video game series published by Ubisoft originally on the ...

'' for the

Nintendo Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

and the

Xbox Kinect Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flig ...

Background and composition

The song, named after the American singer and actress

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

, extensively uses a sample replay of German

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric p ...

group Boney M.'s 1979 international hit single " Gotta Go Home", which in turn borrows content from the 1973 German song "Hallo Bimmelbahn" by the band Nighttrain (the brothers Heinz and Jürgen Huth and

Michael Holm Michael Holm (born Lothar Walter; on 29 July 1943) is a German singer, musician, songwriter and record producer. He is primarily known as a singer of Schlager music. Although his first appearance in the hit parade was in 1962 ("Lauter Schön ...

; the hookline was written only by Heinz Huth). The sample replay of "Gotta Go Home" was produced by

Mark Summers Mark Summers is the English CEO, sound engineer and music producer of Scorccio, a music production company founded in the UK in 1996. A London DJ since 1979, he is a guest lecturer and masterclass presenter on sample replay production, sound e ...

at SCORCCiO Sample Replays. The single's album artwork is modelled directly after Streisand's own 1980 album, ''

Guilty Guilty or The Guilty may refer to: * Guilt (emotion), an experience that occurs when a person believes they have violated a moral standard Law *Culpability, the degree to which an agent can be held responsible for action or inaction *Guilt (law) ...

'', which features a picture of her and

Barry Gibb Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (born 1 September 1946) is a British musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popula ...

on the sleeve. For the "Barbra Streisand" cover, Streisand and Gibb's faces are digitally removed and replaced with duck beaks.

Music video

The music video is set in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(where Barbra Streisand was born) and it features many prominent and affiliated artists making

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

s, such as

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom h ...

André 3000 André Lauren Benjamin (born May 27, 1975), better known as André 3000, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is best known for being a part of southern hip hop duo Outkast alongside fellow rapper Big Boi. ...

Ryan Leslie Anthony Ryan Leslie (born September 25, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and entrepreneur from Washington, D.C. He has produced singles for a number of prominent artists in a variety of genres, ranging from R&B, hip hop ...

Buckshot A shotgun shell, shotshell or simply shell is a type of rimmed, cylindrical (straight-walled) cartridges used specifically in shotguns, and is typically loaded with numerous small, pellet-like spherical sub-projectiles called shot, fired thro ...

, Smif-n-Wessun,

DJ Premier Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He is considered one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time. He was half of the hip hop du ...

Todd Terry Todd Norton Terry (born April 18, 1967) is an American DJ, record producer and remixer in the genre of house music. Musical career Todd Terry was influential in moving House music beyond the early Chicago house sound of 1984–86. He crosse ...

Chromeo Chromeo is a Canadian electro-funk duo from Montreal, formed in 2002 by musicians David "Dave 1" Macklovitch and Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel. Their sound draws from blue-eyed soul, dance music, rock, synth-pop, disco and funk. , the band has relea ...

DJ Mehdi Mehdi Favéris-Essadi (20 January 1977 – 13 September 2011), better known by his stage name DJ Mehdi, was a French hip hop and house music producer and DJ. He was signed to the label Ed Banger Records, founded by his friend Pedro Winter, in ...

, So Me (who also directed the video),

Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is the co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer, a member of the supergroup LSD wit ...

Questlove Ahmir Khalib Thompson (born January 20, 1971), known professionally as Questlove (stylized as ), is an American musician, record producer, disc jockey, filmmaker, music journalist, and actor. He is the drummer and joint frontman (with Black Tho ...

Ezra Koenig Ezra Michael Koenig ( ; born April 8, 1984) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, producer, and internet radio personality. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of indie rock band Vampire Weekend. Additio ...

Santigold Santi White (born September 25, 1976), known professionally as Santigold (formerly Santogold), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. '' Billboard'' presented her in 2022, saying: "Spanning punk rock, hip-hop, and dance music, S ...

Yelawolf Michael Wayne Atha (born December 30, 1979), better known by his stage name Yelawolf, is an American rapper. Born in Alabama and raised in Tennessee, he embarked on his career independently in 2005, releasing one extended play (EP) and four mixta ...

The Roots The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy F ...

and Fafi and

The Fat Jew Joshua Ostrovsky (born February 18, 1982), known professionally as The Fat Jewish, is an American entrepreneur, social media influencer, author and plus size model. Early life Ostrovsky was born and raised in New York City to a Russian-born ra ...

Team Facelift Team Facelift was an American hip hop group based in New York City that signed with Duck Down Records. History The group was founded in 2004 and consisted of its three MCs—Machine, the Fat Jew, Alden Fonda—and one producer, Tommy Mas. T ...

. Barbra Streisand herself is not present in the music video, but it features her

impersonator An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone: *Entertainment: An entertainer impersonates a celebrity, generally for entertainment, and makes fun of ...

, Gayle Robbins.

Critical reception

Nick Levine of

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

gave the song five out of five stars, stating, "... 'Barbra Streisand' actually kinda suits the track, a sassy, no-messin'

disco-house French house, also known as French touch, filter house and tekfunk, is a style of house music originally produced by French musicians in the 1990s. It is a form of Euro disco and a popular strand of the late 1990s and 2000s European dance m ...

dazzler which tips its trilby in the direction of

Studio 54 Studio 54 is a Broadway theater and a former disco nightclub at 254 West 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Operated by the Roundabout Theatre Company, Studio 54 has 1,006 seats on two levels. The theater w ...

circa

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

– happily enough, just when Babs was enjoying her own dancefloor dalliance with ' The Main Event' / 'Fight' and '

No More Tears ''No More Tears'' is the sixth studio album by English heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. Released on 17 September 1991, the album charted at number 17 on the UK Albums Chart and number seven on the US ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart. ''No Mo ...

'. Lack of lyrics notwithstanding, it's deliriously catchy, endlessly danceable and ultimately so uplifting that it could even cheer you up after watching the denouement of ''

The Way We Were ''The Way We Were'' is a 1973 American romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. Arthur Laurents wrote both the novel and screenplay based on his college days at Cornell University and his ...

''." Jason Lipshutz from ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'' gave the song a positive review, describing it as "one of the weirdest, most intoxicating

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...

anthems in recent memory," and wrote: "The most surprising thing about this collaboration ... is its richness in sound in between the

beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...

-stopping utterances of Streisand's name.

Guitar lick The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

s collide with heavy doses of

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

as a fist-pumping beat refuses to let up. The busy

instrumentation Instrumentation a collective term for measuring instruments that are used for indicating, measuring and recording physical quantities. The term has its origins in the art and science of scientific instrument-making. Instrumentation can refer to ...

is brilliantly paired with overly simple vocals: An upbeat

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

of 'oohs' instantly lodges inside the listener's brain, and 'Barbra Streisand' morphs into an inexplicable command to start dancing." Michael Cragg of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' called the song "an insanely catchy slice of disco house."

Chart performance

The song peaked at number eighty-nine on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in May 2011, and number one on the ''

Hot Dance Club Songs Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

chart for the week ending on December 18, 2010. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted and peaked at number three on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

on October 17, 2010 ― for the week ending date October 23, 2010 ― selling 67,000 copies in its first week. It also topped the

UK Dance Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record s ...

. In the Netherlands, the song debuted at number twenty-five on the

Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 ( nl, Nederlandse Top 40) is a weekly music chart compiled by ''Stichting Nederlandse Top 40''. It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965. It remained "The Veroni ...

. It rose up to number two, staying there for several weeks. It broke the record for the most time spent in the second position, without ever reaching the first place.

Use in other media

* The song was featured in the '' Glee'' second-season episode titled " Born This Way". * An official TV spot for the 2012 film '' The Guilt Trip'' includes a clip of Streisand and co-star

Seth Rogen Seth Aaron Rogen (; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian and filmmaker. Originally a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, he moved to Los Angeles for a part in Judd Apatow's series '' Freaks and Geeks'', and then got a part o ...

listening to the song in the car, with Streisand muting it when her name is uttered to instead shout "Me!" * The song was prominently used in Tourism Philippines's 2012 "It's More Fun in the Philippines" publicity campaign. * The song was used in

The Smurfs Dance Party ''The Smurfs Dance Party'' is a dance rhythm game developed by Japanese studio Land Ho! and published by Ubisoft for the Wii as a spin-off title to the ''Just Dance Kids'' series. The game was released on July 19, 2011, in North America, July 29, ...

(it was credited as Barbara Streisand) and later in

Track listing

* UK CD single # "Barbra Streisand" (UK Radio Edit) – 2:20 # "Barbra Streisand" (Extended Mix) – 4:54 # "Barbra Streisand" (

Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), better known as Afrojack, is a Dutch DJ, music producer and remixer from Spijkenisse, South Holland. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album '' Forget the Worl ...

Ducky Mix) – 5:09 # "Barbra Streisand" (

Meaty Mix) – 5:08 * UK digital download # "Barbra Streisand" (UK Radio Edit) – 2:20 # "Barbra Streisand" (Original Mix) – 5:00 # "Barbra Streisand" (

Ducky Mix) – 5:09 # "Barbra Streisand" (

Meaty Mix) – 5:08 # "You're Nasty" (Vocal Mix) – 5:03 * German CD single # "Barbra Streisand" (Radio Edit) – 3:14 # "Barbra Streisand" (Original Mix) – 4:54 * US digital download # "Barbra Streisand" – 5:00 * Australian digital download # "Barbra Streisand" (Radio Edit) – 3:14 # "Barbra Streisand" – 5:00 *Dutch digital download # "Barbra Streisand" (Radio Edit) − 2:43 # "Barbra Streisand" (UK Radio Edit) − 3:14 # "Barbra Streisand" (Original Mix) − 5:00 # "Barbra Streisand" (

Meaty Mix) − 5:07 # "Barbra Streisand" (

Ducky Mix) − 5:08

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control 2010 singles 2010 songs Duck Sauce songs Novelty songs Number-one singles in Austria Number-one singles in Finland Number-one singles in Norway Number-one singles in Poland Number-one singles in Scotland Number-one singles in Switzerland Ultratop 50 Singles (Wallonia) number-one singles Ultratop 50 Singles (Flanders) number-one singles Cultural depictions of Barbra Streisand Songs written by Frank Farian Songs written by Armand Van Helden All Around the World Productions singles Spinnin' Records singles