When Barbra forgot the lyrics to one of her songs during a performance in 1968, it triggered a chronic stage fright that prevented her from singing live for more than 20 years. Her fans will be pleased she has overcome this to perform at the O2 Arena in Greenwich in July. They’ll be less pleased that her restored confidence comes at a price – tickets for the gig will cost up to £500.

Tour promoters have defended the prices – a spokesman said: “Seeing Barbra Streisand in concert is a pretty momentous occasion that ranks up there with seeing Sinatra or Elvis.” The singer, actress and all-round diva certainly has a pulling power enjoyed by few other female performers; her 1993-94 tour grossed nearly £33 million.

Streisand’s stratospheric career is due as much to her determination as to her incredible voice. She was born in Brooklyn to blue-collar Jewish parents, Diana and Emanuel Streisand, but her father died when she was just 15 months old. The family was left penniless and lived with Diana’s parents until she remarried. Streisand resented her stepfather and his daughter and dreamt of becoming famous and escaping them all. Being Barbra Streisand, that’s what she did.

At the age of 18 Streisand won a talent contest in Greenwich Village, which was soon followed by a recording contract with Columbia Records. Over the next four decades she sold 70 million records. She added acting to her CV in 1964 when she was cast in the musical Funny Girl. Transferred to celluloid, Funny Girl gave Streisand her first big film break, and her first Oscar. In the mid1970s she began producing and directing her own films and over the years has notched up a further Oscar, along with a collection of Grammies, Tonies and Emmies.

Streisand earned herself a reputation as a difficult and demanding diva. Walter Matthau, her leading man in Hello, Dolly!, Described the film as “a most unpleasant picture to work on and, since most of my scenes were with her, most distasteful”. Streisand, however, insists: “I think I would be much happier if I could chop wood and carry water instead of making movies and being attacked.” This is the woman who, in her first Broadway musical, demanded that her programme biog list her as having been born in Madagascar and raised in Rangoon.

But the diva seems to have mellowed recently, thanks in part to her second marriage – to the actor James Brolin. She’s forsaken ruthless self-promotion in favour of quality time with her husband; the 65-year-old revealed that they have sex six times a week. Two years ago she said she had had enough of hard work and would never again do a concert tour because “they took up too much energy”. But now that she’s changed her mind her free-spending British fans will be expecting her to muster up a little more energy at the O2 this summer.

Explore Celebrity

• People

Times recommends

• Live chat: Thrifty ways to update your winter wardrobe
• Is anybody out there really listening?
• Nutrition Q&A: Will eating late make me fat?