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Barbra Streisand Plans To Say Goodbye Again

Barbra Streisand --who claimed that her New Year’s Eve performances seven months ago in Las Vegas would probably be her last U.S. concert appearances--has announced plans for her “final” public performances. The singer has scheduled Sept. 20 and 21 gigs at Staples Center in Los Angeles and Sept. 27 and 28 shows at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Tickets for the Los Angeles shows are scheduled to go on sale on July 30, while tickets for the New York shows are scheduled to go on sale on July 31. Ticket prices were not available at press time.

Unlike the statements that preceded the Las Vegas performances, Streisand’s camp is leaving out the word “probably” and its synonyms in describing the concerts as her last. “Ms. Streisand has chosen to conclude her public performance career in the two cities most closely associated with her work,” her manager Martin Erlichman said in a statement.

Streisand’s New Year's Eve performance at the MGM Grand Garden arena in Las Vegas set a single-concert box-office record, taking in nearly $14.7 million, according to concert industry magazine Pollstar. With ticket prices that ranged between $500 and $2,500, the concert was also one of the highest-priced shows in history. Despite the prices, the MGM Grand said that the shows sold out within five hours, and a New Year’s Day performance was added.

A short time later, Streisand announced plans to embark on a short tour of Australia. In a statement announcing the Australian performances, Streisand acknowledged stating that her concert engagement at the MGM Grand would probably be her final one in the U.S., but she said that she wanted to fulfill a “lifelong dream” of performing for her Australian fans.

“My priorities have shifted,” Streisand said in a statement issued at the time. “I want to travel and enjoy my life. There are places in the world my husband and I want to visit and Australia has always been one of them.”

Streisand has performed rarely since the mid-‘60s. Prior to her 1993-94 pair of New Year's concerts at the MGM Grand Garden, she had gone nearly three decades without performing for pay in public.