In February 2005, Billboard reported that Barry Gibb and Barbra were going to reunite and do a sequel to their multi-platinum 1980 smash album Guilty. “To start off,” Barbra said, “[Barry] wrote a few songs and sent them to me to see if they’d be something I’d like to record. They were really strong so I just encouraged him to write more! I told him how much I loved the sound of George Michael’s song ‘Jesus to a Child’ and asked him if he could try to write something in a Bossa Nova style. The next week he surprised me with ‘Golden Dawn,’ which is one of my favorites on the album.”

Gibb continued to write new songs with his children Ashley and Steve, and Barbra warmed to the idea of a sequel. “I’ve always looked back at the Guilty album as one of the easiest, most pleasant recording experiences I’ve ever had. Barry just made the process a delight. Maybe because he’s an artist himself, he understands what it takes to be a producer for another singer.” The timing was perfect too. “It happened to coincide with the [25th] anniversary.... It’s given our reunion an extra special meaning, but it wasn’t something I’d really planned.”

Once Barry had written ten new songs, he enlisted the help of producer John Merchant, who booked local musicians from the Miami area to record demos for Barbra to listen to. “I said, ‘give me three days at Criteria [Studios] and let me show you what they can do,’” said Merchant. “Barry was really thrilled at who we have locally.” Streisand loved the first few demos, and Merchant and Gibb continued to record until they had done all ten songs.

Barry, Barbra, and Merchant began the final recording process in late May, in Grandma’s House. “It’s really charming,” Merchant said. “The house was built in the 1950s and sits on the cliffs of Malibu. It has beautiful open beam ceilings, a view of the Pacific.”

When the album was ready for release, Barbra and Barry were both very pleased with it. “It is wonderful,” Gibb said, “she’s in great voice and I think it’s a nice album.” Sony set up a website where Barbra discussed her feelings about the album: “There’s a sonic continuity, because Barry’s singing quite a lot of background vocals on the album, but it’s not a concept like The Broadway Album or The Movie Album. The songs cover a lot of ground, expressing thoughts about relationships, joy and fantasy. Barry’s lyrics are more impressionistic than the songs I usually choose to record, so I suppose in some way they can be interpreted differently, depending on your personal experience.

“When he was writing, he was trying to express thoughts and feelings that he imagined I’d relate to, things I’d want to say. I mentioned a few records that I liked the sound of, which he sometimes used as creative jumping off points. On the title song ‘Above the Law’, I liked the gentle wink towards the title ‘Guilty,’ sort of like after all these years we’ve got nothing to be guilty of, we’re above the law. When Barry played me the rough demo, the song wasn’t quite finished. As I was listening to it, I heard a counter melody in my mind and sang it to Barry. The next day, he’d incorporated it into the song, making it a duet. So that was very gratifying. When I write a song, it’s usually out of necessity, like writing ‘Evergreen’ for A Star Is Born—I just needed a song for the movie! So, I don’t take the time to write as much as I’d like. It was lovely to collaborate with Barry in this way.”

Barbra thought her voice and Barry’s meshed well together. “Through the years I’ve recorded a lot of duets with everyone from Louis Armstrong to Neil Diamond and Celine Dion. As a singer, it’s very rewarding to find a great vocal partner, and Barry’s one of my favorites. I love the airy texture of his voice. I really enjoy the process of discovering new ways to harmonize with another singer.”

Guilty Pleasures included a dance song, “Night of My Life,” which Columbia released as a 12-inch single for clubs. It rose to No. 2 on the Billboard dance chart. Critical reaction to the album was good. Bill Lamb, on the About.com Guide, wrote, “Barbra Streisand’s best work of the past two decades have been her albums interpreting Broadway and Hollywood classics. When she has turned to pop her performances have too often sounded forced and uncomfortable--until now. On Guilty Pleasures she moves among a variety of pop styles with ease. From the Latin touches of “Golden Dawn” and “Hideaway” to the disco “Night of My Life” and classic adult contemporary pop of “Stranger in a Strange Land,” Streisand is fully in command of her muse.”

Despite the good reviews and the success of the dance single, Guilty Pleasures, while a hit, failed to live up to the lofty sales expectations set by Guilty. Its top chart position was number five, and it went Gold, but it fell about 150,000 units short of the one million units required for a Platinum designation. It was probably unrealistic to expect the sequel to equal the first album’s sales. Guilty was released when both Barbra and the Bee Gees were at the height of enormous popularity. The confluence of their two fan bases resulted in 5 million copies sold. Twenty-five years later, both were still popular, but not quite so phenomenally.

After the success of the 2000 tour, Barbra was asked repeatedly by promoters to tour again. She repeatedly declined. But early in 2006, she decided to do so in order to raise money for her Streisand Foundation and other charities that she supports. A June 12 press release announced that the twenty-city tour would kick off in Philadelphia and include the quartet Il Divo as special guests.

Il Divo, which means “divine male performer” in Italian, is an operatic pop vocal group of four male singers created by Simon Cowell. They comprise French pop singer Sebastien Izambard, Spanish baritone Carol Marin, American tenor David Miller, and Swiss tenor Urs Buhler. The handsome multi-platinum recording artists had just finished a six-month tour of Amnerica, Australia, and Europe, and agreed to accompany Barbra for all twenty concerts scheduled for the new tour. In a joint statement, they expressed joy at touring with Barbra: “We believe the experience of working with Barbra Streisand — a truly legendary artist — will forever shape the way we approach our own singing and performing. Her voice and her music have profoundly influenced and inspired so many artists, including Il Divo, and we are thrilled to be sharing the stage with her.”

Streisand’s choice of venues reflected her desire to bring her show to cities she had never performed in, or had not performed in since the mid-sixties. Between October 4 and November 20, in addition to New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, she would perform in Columbus, Ohio; Montreal; Toronto; Boston; Minneapolis; Ft. Lauderdale; Atlanta; Atlantic City; Chicago; San Jose; Phoenix; and the District of Columbia.

Barbra opted for a sleek, modern look for her set this time. Designer Jeremy Railton said, “As I started my initial design exercises for this tour, it became obvious to me that this show, more than all the others, was about designing for the sound. This, after all, was Barbra Streisand, with a 52-piece orchestra of hand-picked musicians conducted and arranged by William Ross. This was not the show for elaborate decorative elements, huge LED screens, or drawbridges, but a show that had to move from city to city, in halls with sometimes less-than-adequate acoustic properties and yet truly reflect the genius of our artists. To add to the audio and visual challenge, the show would play in the round in some venues and in 270° configurations in others. Another overriding design obligation was to provide a comfortable home for the huge orchestra and ensure that our single artist would not be lost in a visual sea of musical instruments. She had to be able to visit different sides of the arena yet remain in eye contact with her conductor, and at all times, she had to be able to feel and be in contact with her musicians and her audience.

“Ultimately the stage became a series of ramps surrounding a sunken orchestra. I put small Juliet stages on all sides, creating intimate visiting spots with a table, a vase of flowers, and a pot of tea, which allowed for each side of the audience to receive a visit from our beloved diva.”

The show was directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, the 53-year-old Broadway and recording veteran, who told BarbraNews: “[Barbra] and I spoke on the phone and I asked, point blank, why she was considering this. She then told me about the money that could be made forthe Streisand Foundation, etc. I immediately said, ‘I’m in.’ I also told her, ‘I will die if you do this without me.’ I know it’s dramatic, but hey, I’m in the theater!”

Barbra started rehearsals in mid-August 2006. Ticket sales were brisk for the tour, except the Oct. 18th Detroit show, which was canceled. “We apologize to the dedicated Barbra Streisand fans in Detroit who had purchased tickets, but it was impossible not to accommodate the extraordinary demand in Toronto,” said Michael Cohl of Concert Productions International. “We are truly sorry for any inconvenience.”

“There were some mantras that drove this show,” Richard Jay-Alexander explained. “Like ‘the truth’—and we weren’t going to consider songs that she doesn’t really feel strongly about or that she didn’t want to sing. We really laughed a lot putting the show together. We also sang a lot of songs that didn’t make it in and [I and the others involved] were constantly amazed at how she would ‘zero in’ on and edit, cut, improve and help to shape what eventually became the ‘template’ of the show.”

As opening night in Philadelphia (October 4, 2006) approached, Streisand and crew rehearsed for four days at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey. Broadway singer Liz Callaway (Ann Hampton Callaway’s sister) was hired as Streisand’s stand-in. “[Richard Jay-Alexander] asked me what I was doing for the next week and a half, because Barbra Streisand was looking for someone who could learn the music and be ready to jump in and perform at any moment during rehearsals,” Callaway told the Chicago Sun-Times. If Barbra was called away from rehearsal for any reason, Liz would perform her movements so that the others could still see “Barbra” on stage. “I had very little contact with her, but when I did, she was so warm and down to earth,” Callaway said. “I am so happy to have had this opportunity. I think I’m going to keep my backstage credentials forever.”

It wasn’t only the stage design that set this tour apart from Timeless. Barbra’s song choices were more eclectic; she sang a number of songs she hadn’t performed live in decades, if at all: among them were her own composition “Ma Premiere Chanson,” which she played on the piano for a bit before singing (and apologizing to the audience for her limited piano skills); “A Cockeyed Optimist”; “Funny Girl” from the film; “The Music That Makes Me Dance,” from the stage version. Fans were astonished that, at 64, Barbra sounded almost exactly as she had on the original cast album, and when she sang “My Man” she held the top note at song’s end without waver or pullback.

In the second act, after singing “The Music of the Night” with Il Divo; “Children Will Listen”; “Unusual Way”; and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”, she took questions from the audience by way of cards that they filled out in the lobby before the concert. One request was that she sing “Stoney End.” She expressed surprise at the song’s enduring popularity, then gave a truncated though energetic performance.

Barbra ended the show with rousing renditions of “Somewhere” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” both of which had audiences on their feet.

The one controversial part of Barbra’s show was a comic sketch with a George W. Bush imitator being dumb (he proposes cutting the national debt by selling Canada and says, “If I cared about polls I would have run for president of Poland.”). The election was less than a month away, and Barbra must have felt that the skit might sway some people to vote for the Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Most of Barbra’s fans share her political views, but not all do, and the skit caused several unpleasant incidents. On October 30 in New York (a blue state!) some audience members jeered the skit. Barbra responded angrily, “Why don’t you shut the fuck up? If you can’t take a joke, why don’t you leave and get your money back?” Audience cheers drowned out the protesters. Barbra later apologized for her outburst: “I shouldn’t have lost it.”

Another problem arose in Sunrise, Florida, when someone threw a glass of water at her at the end of the skit. Barbra later told the Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich that the man—who was escorted out of the arena—hadn’t even paid for his ticket. “That guy was a friend of guests that I had.” She had invited the crew of a friend’s yacht to attend, but one of them got sick and gave his ticket to the man in question. “No good deed goes unpunished,” Barbra said with a laugh. She said she felt that the man wasn’t making a political statement by rather was drunk and having a fight with his wife.

Despite sketchy reports of slow ticket sales at the outset, Billboard.com reported that Barbra’s tour set box office records. The twenty concerts grossed $92,457,062 and set house records in fourteen of the sixteen arenas played. In the other two arenas, Madison Square Garden and the MGM Grand, she already held the venue record.

Barbra’s goal of raising money for her causes was spectacularly met. She donated $11 million from the net proceeds to the Streisand Foundation for its charitable distributions. The first million dollar donation from these funds was a contribution to the William Jefferson Clinton Climate Change initiative. Another $5 million was donated to the Cedar-Sinai Women’s Heart Center as an endowment funding the Barbra Streisand Women’s Cardiovascular Research and Education Program.

On May 8, 2007, Columbia released the two-CD recording Barbra Streisand: Live in Concert. It rose to number seven on the Billboard chart, but despite that has yet to reach Gold status. Two years later, on April 25, 2009, CBS aired the Florida concert. 4.98 million viewers tuned in. And three days later, Sony released a DVD set of this concert, the 1994 show at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, and the special on her Broadway album, Putting It Together. The package rose to number one on Billboard’s DVD sales chart.

When the announcement came that Barbra would be taking her latest show to the U.K. and Continental Europe, fans there were ecstatic. Many had paid dearly to come to America to see her last three major concerts; this time it wouldn’t be quite so expensive. “What a joy it will be to perform in so many wonderful countries for the first time,” Barbra said. “I can’t wait to experience these different audiences and different cultures.”

Between June 18 and July 25, 2007, Barbra brought her stage and her musicians for single dates to Zurich; Vienna; Paris (where Barbra was awarded a medal of the Legion of Honor by France’s president Nicholas Sarkozy); Berlin; Manchester, England; Dublin; and London for three sold-out shows. She had to cancel scheduled shows in Stockholm, Rome, and Nice, for various reasons. For this tour she replaced Il Divo with four male singing stars from Broadway (Peter Lockyer, Michael Arden, Sean McDermott, and Hugh Panaro), and she tinkered with her song list and patter to accommodate each new city.

The European tour proved a mixed commercial success. Several of the cancellations were reported to have been because of lack of ticket sales. If this is so, it might be a result of ticket prices being too high (in Rome there were vociferous protests about the prices) or the fact that Barbra’s popularity is not the same in every country. Still, the tour made a lot of money, and afforded Barbra and her fans “across the pond” a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.