BARBRA STREISAND... MY BARBRA.....MY ALTER EGO

[SHARON MARIE CLINE]

People often comment on my "sustain ability"... My ability to carry an emotion and tone thru the very last moment of a phrase to the very last ounce of breath... I learned that from Barbara... I learned to fill every note with emotion... and whether I was whispering it or belting it or crying it, the note was full of the emotion of the moment.  I call it "treating the note" with the import of the lyric... I call that : communication.... Barbara was my first mentor for this... And what a great teacher she was.

I LOVED Barbra growing up! I thought I was Barbra... Funny Girl, Second Rose, He Touched Me, The Way We Were, Everything, Gotta Move, Evergreen, Coming In & Out of Your Life, Happy Days Are Here Again, Sam You Made The Pants Too Long... Those were MY songs! I lived them... Don't Rain On My Parade was my pre-teen anthem!!  I've sung so many Barbra Steisand songs that in college, my Musical Theatre teacher banned me from Barbra.  He said: "Darling, try as you might, you know you are not a Jewish girl from Brooklyn, right? What do you say, we give some other Divas a try?" 

As an artist, an actress, a filmmaker, a producer, Barbra is a very precise woman... Very clear on her vision and a strong will to see it through... with no compromise. Some don't get her dedication and her focus. I do. I respect her deeply.

I love you, Barbra.... I am so grateful for the foundation you laid within my artistry.  Listen to Barbra: