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Fans to Barbra Streisand: 'Shut Up and Sing'
Some of Barbra Streisand's fans have some advice for the diva as she makes a rare U.S. tour - shut up and sing.
Streisand, 64, an ardent Democrat, has used the opportunity of her first U.S. tour in 12 years to snipe at President Bush, employing a Bush impersonator to sing a duet with her while blasting the administration's policies.
Not all members of her audience, who paid up to $250 for a ticket, have appreciated her politics. During a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden this week, one concertgoer yelled out, asking if the concert was a fundraiser. Streisand replied: "Shut the f*** up!"
Streisand apologized to the audience of about 20,000 people for losing her temper, but her outburst and inclusion of her political views in her show alienated some fans who have written to newspapers and Web sites to rebuke her.
One fan, Margaret Ferrante, said she was outraged to hear Streisand ridicule an audience member and any Republicans in the audience.
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"She turned a display of her phenomenal musical talent into a profanity-laden attack on people who paid good money to see her," Ferrante wrote the New York Daily News Thursday.
"I love her voice but could not in good conscience ever pay to see her perform again."
Another fan, John Culver, who attended the concert on the night of the heckler, said the man had been bothering the singer all night - but slammed her anti-Bush skit.
"Don't bite the hand that buys your record, Barbra. We all know your politics. Shut up and sing!" Culver wrote to the Daily News.
Dan Johancsik wrote to the Orange County Register in California to say: "Subjecting loyal fans to one's own sour grapes politics is flat-out immature."
Columnist Liz Smith in the New York Post praised Streisand's show - but blasted the singer for making her concert so political.
"She apologized for losing her temper, and spoke of unity. But it is the very nature of her pointless parody that divides," wrote Smith. A spokesman for Streisand said she had no further comment about the incident and no plans to change her show following the complaints. "It was just something that happened. There are a lot of people who are supportive of how she handled this," he told Reuters.
Streisand, who is America's biggest-selling female recording artist of all time with 71 million albums sold, is a well-known opponent of Bush, with several entries on her Web site (http://www.barbrastreisand.com) attacking the president and his policies.
(c) Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Inside Cover Stories
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