Streisand Sings 'The Way We Were' at Oscars, Reveals She Signed Last Note to Redford 'Babs'

Barbra Streisand brought the Dolby Theatre to its feet on Sunday night when she stepped onto the Oscars stage for the first time in over a decade to honour Robert Redford with a performance of The Way We Were.

The 83-year-old, who has been effectively retired from live performance since 2019, appeared during the 98th Academy Awards' extended In Memoriam segment to pay tribute to her late co-star, who died on 16 September 2025 at his home in Sundance, Utah. He was 89, Variety reported.

Wearing a black gown, Streisand delivered a three-and-a-half-minute speech before singing roughly 40 seconds of the song that defined one of Hollywood's most celebrated on-screen partnerships.

Streisand's Rare Return to the Oscars Stage

Her appearance had been widely rumoured ahead of Sunday's ceremony, hosted by Conan O'Brien, but it still carried genuine weight. Streisand last performed at the Academy Awards on 24 February 2013, when she sang the same song as a tribute to composer Marvin Hamlisch during that year's In Memoriam segment.

This time, the stakes were different.

Streisand recalled how Redford initially turned down the role of Hubbell Gardiner in the 1973 Sydney Pollack-directed romance, saying the character 'had no backbone.' Numerous script rewrites followed before he finally agreed. 'He was a brilliant, subtle actor, and we had a wonderful time playing off each other because we never quite knew what the other one was going to do in a scene,' she told the audience.

She praised Redford's commitment beyond the screen. He defended press freedom, championed environmental causes, and nurtured independent filmmakers through the Sundance Institute he founded in 1981. Streisand noted that some of its alumni were up for awards that very evening.

'He was thoughtful and bold,' she said. 'I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail and won the Academy Award for best director.'

The Last Note Streisand Wrote to Redford

The most arresting moment came when Streisand turned to the personal. She described Redford's decades-long habit of calling her 'Babs' - a nickname she resisted for years.

'He'd call me Babs, and I'd say, Bob, you know, do I look like a Babs? I'm not a Babs!' she said, drawing laughter from the crowd. 'But the way he said it made me laugh.'

She then recounted a phone call from years later. The two had been chatting about their usual subjects - politics, art, and their shared love of the painter Modigliani. As they prepared to hang up, Redford said: 'Babs, I love you dearly, and I always will.'

In a moment that hushed the theatre, Streisand revealed that the last note she ever wrote to Redford ended with the words 'I love you too.' She signed it 'Babs.'

The orchestra swelled. An image of Redford filled the screen, accompanied by one of his quotes: 'The glory of art is that it can not only survive change, it can lead it.' Standing behind a podium with her own conductor in the aisle, Streisand picked up a microphone and sang the closing lines of the song. The audience gave her a standing ovation, Billboard reported.

The song, written by Alan and Marilyn Bergman and Hamlisch, won the Oscar for best original song at the 46th Academy Awards in 1974. It spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

Redford won the best director Oscar for Ordinary People in 1980 and received an honorary Academy Award in 2002 - presented, fittingly, by Streisand herself. He went on to reshape independent cinema through Sundance, mentoring filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson.

The extended In Memoriam segment, which broke from the ceremony's traditional format, also featured Billy Crystal paying tribute to director Rob Reiner, who died alongside his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, on 14 December 2025.

Rachel McAdams honoured Catherine O'Hara, with additional tributes to Diane Keaton, among others.