If you’ve watched PBS in the past week or two, you’ve seen this: its broadcast Barbra Streisand: TimelessBarbra Streisand’s 2000 Fox special which was taped live at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve 1999 and New Year’s Day 2000. If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check it out. The singer, then 57, had a great voice, and was charming and even playful with the audience.
Streisand’s performance on the special earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program. He faced stiff competition: Steve Martin to host the 2001 Oscars, David Letterman to host Late Show with David LettermanThanks to Will Ferrell for hosting an episode Saturday night LiveEllen DeGeneres (who hosted that year’s Primetime Emmys) for one of her HBO specials and Wayne Brady for hosting Whose Line Is It Anyway?
The votes were cast, the ballots were tallied – and then, just five days before the Emmys were presented, 9/11 happened. The Emmys, originally scheduled for September 16, 2001, were rescheduled twice: to October 7 and, after the start of the war in Afghanistan, to November 4. These were scary times. The awards ceremony was moved from its planned location, the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, to the smaller Shubert Theater in Century City. To increase security, sharpshooters were deployed on rooftops, attendees passed through metal detectors, nearby businesses were closed, and the two lowest underground parking levels of the Shubert Complex were closed due to the threat of a car bomb.
Will and Grace Stars Eric McCormack and Debra Messing presented the award for outstanding individual performance in a variety or concert program. Messing declared Streisand the winner and said, “Barbra Streisand was unable to attend the evening. We congratulate her on this honor.”
Streisand was actually present at Schubert, but demonstrating remarkable discipline and sacrifice, she missed the opportunity to take the stage and give an acceptance speech. She knew it would diminish the dramatic impact of her stunning, show-closing performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” in which she used her talents to try to heal the nation’s raw wounds.
They were backed by a gospel choir in the performance, which was dramatically staged and featured the names of some of those killed in the attacks. One sign read, “Our hearts are broken. Not our souls.” It summed up the spirit of the performance, causing the audience to stand up and applaud.
Streisand’s performance came three nights before Alan Jackson performed his memoir about the 9/11 events, “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)”, at the Country Music Awards ceremony at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville.
Gary Smith was the executive producer of the 2001 Emmy telecast. He had worked with Streisand for many years, both on her own specials and when she appeared on other shows, such as judy garland show (1963) and Singer Burt Bacharach Presents (1971), where Streisand memorably sang a duet with herself on “One Less Bell to Answer”/”A House Is Not a Home”. Smith also executive produced the May 2, 2001 special where Streisand received an AFI Life Achievement Award. He died in August 2025 at the age of 90.
Barbra Streisand: Timeless Won four Emmys overall, including one for Marvin Hamlisch for Outstanding Music Direction. This was Streisand’s fifth special award to win one or more Primetime Emmys. my name is barbara (1965), Barbra Streisand: An Incident in Central Park (1969), Barbra Streisand…and other musical instruments (1974) and Barbra Streisand: The Concert (1995).
A Timeless: Live in Concert The album was released on September 19, 2000. The double-disc set, Streisand’s fifth live album, debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200 and charted for 17 weeks. It received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, one of 14 awards Streisand received in that category.
This is that performance on the night of 4 November 2001.
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