Barbra Streisand to Receive 2023 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award

The legendary vocalist will be honored by the Library of Congress on April 22

Barbra Streisand to Receive 2023 Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award
Barbra Streisand . Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty

Barbra Streisand will be the first musical artist to receive the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award.

On Wednesday, the "Woman in Love" singer shared her gratitude on social media for the honor, which will be presented by the Library of Congress on April 22.

"I am deeply honored to receive this award named after one of the iconic and pathbreaking Justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court," Streisand tweeted Wednesday.

Per the Washington Post, the late Supreme Court judge was a fan of Streisand, 80.

"Women everywhere have benefited from the brilliance and courage of the Hon. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg," Streisand said in a statement to the Washington Post. "She is an inspiration to us all. She devoted her life to advancing equality and justice, and the world is a better place for it. I am so deeply honored to receive an award in the name of such an extraordinary woman, American hero and an icon to the world."

Previous honorees include Queen Elizabeth II, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and justice reform advocate Agnes Gund.

The Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership recognizes "an extraordinary woman who has exercised a positive and notable influence on society and served as an exemplary role model in both principles and practice."

"She wanted to honor women of great passion and achievement," Ginsburg's friend Julie Opperman said to the outlet. "She wanted it to be women in the RBG tradition. I'm pleased to say Barbra Streisand was among them."

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In November, Steisand released an album titled Live at the Bon Soir, which was originally intended to be her debut album after she signed with Columbia Records in 1962. She recorded the songs in a tiny Greenwich Village nightclub that year.

"I had never even been in a nightclub until I sang in one," the singer said in the record's liner notes. "I sang two songs in a talent contest at a little club called The Lion and won, which led to being hired at a more sophisticated supper club around the corner called the Bon Soir, with an actual stage and a spotlight."

She continued, "The buzz that began at the Bon Soir led to a contract with Columbia Records in 1962, the start of a long association that continues to this day. The initial plan for my first album was to record it at the club, and these early tapes have been sleeping in my vault for six decades. I'm delighted to finally bring them out into the light and share what could have been my debut album, Live at the Bon Soir."

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