Barbra Streisand Wows Adoring Toronto Fans
Posted October 18, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Everyone was feeling the love at Barbra Streisand’s first ever Toronto concert Tuesday night.
Performing a mix of old and new pop and show tunes, Babs turned on the charm for an adoring sold out crowd at the Air Canada Centre that reportedly included figure skating legends Brian Orser and Brian Boitano.
“Hello Toronto! I’m very excited to be here,” Streisand told the crowd.
The response, from someone shouting in the audience, was: “We love you back!” to which Streisand replied, “It’s nice to know I’m appreciated.”
The 64-year-old singer-actor-director included the classics People, Somewhere, and Funny Girl in her set. Another well-known Streisand tune, The Way We Were, was dedicated to one of the star’s former flames, the late Pierre Trudeau.
“One of the most exciting nights of my life was being (then prime minister) Pierre Trudeau’s date…So, for him…,” she said, before launching into the song.
Streisand played the first of three Canadian shows on Sunday in Montreal, and she plays a second Toronto show on Friday.
The Oscar winner’s last North American tour was more than a decade ago, in 1994, and her last Canadian date was in 1961 when she performed a two-week stint in Winnipeg. She stopped touring for nearly two decades on account of what she called incredible stage fright.
Tuesday’s show sold out in half an hour, with tickets ranging from $85 to $550. But resale prices shot as high as $1,700.
