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Higher Ground (Barbra Streisand album)

Higher Ground is the twenty-seventh studio album by American singer Barbra Streisand, which, at the time, was her first in four years (since 1993’s Back to Broadway). The album was inspired by and dedicated to Virginia Clinton Kelley. It was released in North America on November 11, 1997, and a day earlier in Europe.

Higher Ground

November 11, 1997 (1997-11-11)

August–September 1997

Pop

56:31

Columbia

The lead single, "Tell Him"—a duet with Celine Dion—was released on October 7, 1997, and become an international hit. Follow-up singles were "If I Could" and the title track. "If I Could" had been previously recorded by jazz singer Nancy Wilson as well as a medley of the inspirational standards "I Believe" and "You'll Never Walk Alone", later both issued as standalone recordings by the singer. The album also contains a cover of Bernard Ighner's "Everything Must Change", a song which Streisand had previously recorded in sessions for her 1974 album ButterFly but had remained unreleased.[6]


Higher Ground became Streisand's eighth number-one album in the US and has sold over five million copies worldwide.[7]

Critical reception[edit]

Bob Cannon from Entertainment Weekly opined that the "persistent" strings-and-choir treatment on these 12 tunes "reduces the whole collection to one long, lush ballad that would be more at home over The Prince of Tides' closing credits."[8] Caroline Sullivan from The Guardian wrote, "If divas there must be, let them be like Streisand, who simply eclipses wannabes like Celine Dion (whose duet with Babs, "Tell Him", appears on both women's albums). Her 54th LP, inspired by a friend's death, concerns 'the power of prayer', which led her to record uplifting tunes like "I Believe" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". Gloriously OTT, she out-does Dion, a gospel choir and entire orchestras. It all starts a bit tentatively, but she hits her breast-beating stride by the time we get to the gospelised title track, and from there till the Hebrew finale, "Avinu Malkeinu", she drains songs dry and leaves their husks behind. Fab."[9]

Awards[edit]

"Tell Him" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 1998.


"I Believe" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Instrumental Arrangement in 1999.