Barbra Streisand's New Album Consists of 11 Collaborations. Here's What Her Camp Is Entering in the Upcoming Grammy Race

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Barbra Streisand's new album, The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two, consists of 11 collaborations, just about any of which would be a strong entry in the upcoming Grammy competition for best pop duo/group performance. The album includes collaborations with Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Sting, Sam Smith and a three-way collab with Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande. And that's just for starters.
Streisand and her featured artists have won a combined 80 Grammys – and that's not counting honorary awards, such as the lifetime achievement awards that Streisand, McCartney and Dylan each received from the Recording Academy in the 1990s. Streisand and her featured artists have received a head-spinning 333 nominations.
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In categories where the artist is a nominee, Grammy rules allow 'up to two nominations per artist provided at least one is with a co-nominee(s).' So no more than two of the collaborations can be nominated for best pop duo/group performance.
So, what did Streisand's team decide to go with? They are entering 'One Heart, One Voice,' a collab with Carey and Grande, for record of the year, song of the year and best pop duo/group performance. They're entering 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,' a collab with Hozier that is the opening track on the album, for best arrangement, instruments and vocals.
'I can share that it was a tough decision!,' Jay Landers, Streisand's long-time A&R advisor, tells Billboard over email. He ticks off these five factors which played into the decision (which he agreed that we could print):
'An abundance of riches: With the exception of two guests, Josh Groban and Hozier, all the other guests are past Grammy recipients. (Josh and Hozier are previous nominees but have yet to win. According to the Grammy website, Josh has five nominations and Hozier has one.)
'Barbra's picks: Barbra had her personal favorite choices which, of course, we seriously factored into the final selections.
'Track popularity: We did consider this relative popularity based on the number of streams and downloads for individual tracks on Spotify, iTunes, etc.
' 'Cannibalization': The recognition that it's historically unwise to submit two songs in the same category for fear of splitting the vote. This made the [best pop duo/group performance] category particularly challenging — weighing legacy artists like Dylan, McCartney, Sting, and James Taylor vs. highly regarded 'newer' artists like Hozier, Laufey, and Sam Smith for example.
'Current taste: Trying to second-guess what 'contemporary' vs. 'seasoned' Grammy voters might think — including their taste and 'demographics' — was something that crossed my mind but [was] not seriously explored.'
'One Heart, One Voice' features three of the greatest singers of their respective generations: Streisand, 83; Carey, 56; and Grande, 32. In a way, it echoes a three-way collab on The Judy Garland Show in October 1963, when Streisand, then just 22, teamed with Judy Garland, then 41, and Ethel Merman, then 55, to sing Irving Berlin's 'There's No Business Like Show Business.'
Three-way collaborations among female artists are relatively rare, but Grande has been nominated for best pop duo/group performance with two such collabs over the years – 'Bang Bang' (with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj) in 2015 and 'The Boy Is Mine' (with Brandy and Monica) earlier this year.
Grande won a Grammy in that same category in 2021 for a collab with another female superstar, Lady Gaga, on 'Rain on Me.' Streisand won a Grammy in a predecessor category (best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal) in 1981 for 'Guilty,' a collab with Barry Gibb. She was also nominated in that category (as well as record of the year) the previous year for 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers,' a collab with Neil Diamond.
Over the years, Streisand has also been nominated for collaborations with Michael Crawford ('The Music of the Night'), Celine Dion ('Tell Him') and Bryan Adams ('I Finally Found Someone').
Carey has yet to win a Grammy for a collab, but she has been nominated for collabs with Trey Lorenz ('I'll Be There'), Luther Vandross ('Endless Love'), Boyz II Men ('One Sweet Day'), Whitney Houston ('When You Believe), Joe and 98° ('Thank God I Found You') and Kim Burrell, Rance Allen and BeBe Winans ('I Understand').
The Secret of Life… will be entered in album of the year, best traditional pop vocal album, best engineered recording (for Jochem van der Saag) and best album notes (for Streisand and Landers).
The album is a likely nominee for best traditional pop vocal album – an award Streisand has yet to win, despite 13 nominations. (Three of her featured artists have won in the category: McCartney won in 2013 for Kisses on the Bottom, Taylor in 2021 for American Standard and Laufey in 2024 for Bewitched.)
If Streisand is nominated for a Grammy this year, she will tie composer John Williams for the longest span of Grammy nominations – 62 years. He received his first nod in 1962 and his three most recent nods in 2024.
If Streisand wins when the 68th annual Grammys are presented on Feb. 1, she would set a new record for the longest span of Grammy wins. Streisand won her first two Grammys in 1964, so a win early next year would give her a 62-year span of Grammys. The current record-holder is Tony Bennett, whose wins spanned 59 years, from 1963 to 2022.
If Streisand wins, it would be her first Grammy win in any category in 39 years, since she won best pop vocal performance, female for The Broadway Album in 1987. That would be an extraordinarily long gap between Grammys for an artist of Streisand's stature, but she has endured it without complaint.
Walter Afanasieff and Peter Asher teamed to produce the album. Both are past winners of the Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical. Afanasieff (who worked on many hits for Carey) won in 2000. Asher won in both 1978 and 1990.
Afanasieff and William Ross arranged the Hozier duet, which is being entered for best arrangement, instruments and vocals.
Three Streisand recordings have won in that category over the years. Peter Matz won for his arrangement of 'People' (1965), Ian Freebairn-Smith for 'Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born)' (1978) and David Foster for 'Somewhere' (1987).
First-round voting for the 2026 Grammys runs from Oct. 3 to Oct. 15. The nominees will be announced Nov. 7. Final-round voting will be held Dec. 12 through Jan. 5, 2026.
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