Barbra Streisand Shares Duet With Paul McCartney, ‘My Valentine’

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Barbra Streisand has announced a 2025 duets album featuring collaborations with such fellow legends as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, and James Taylor. The new collection, The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two, coming June 27, even includes a trio performance with Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande. The album is available for pre-order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. The duet with McCartney on “My Valentine” was released on May 16. It follows the initial single, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” with Hozier. Listen to both below.

For this new collection of duets, Streisand, who turned 83 on April 24, collaborated with a stellar group of friends, contemporaries, admirers, and label mates to share the microphone on eleven tracks. The album serves as a long-awaited follow-up to 2014’s #1, Platinum-certified duets collection, Partners. [The latter, featuring Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and others, is available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.]

“What a joy it was to record ‘My Valentine’ with Paul McCartney,” she wrote on May 14. “To share time with him in the studio was truly special!” In a promotional clip she noted, “The Beatles and I started the same year: both of our debut albums came out in 1963.”

Of the recording, she said, “Paul had written it as a solo song but with a few slight adjustments, his lyrics perfectly lent themselves to be sung as a duet.”

McCartney described the experience as “Nerve-wracking. Nail-biting! I did the session with her in LA and I was pretty terrified,” he wrote. “I think [it] was about three hours, you know, a normal kind of session, and it was produced by my friend Peter Asher. But it started off with a big 40-piece orchestra on the Sony lot, which is one of the old Hollywood film studios; it’s very impressive. And we were on ‘The Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage,’ so no pressure there!

“I thought, ‘Well, this will be easy because it’s my song. What can go wrong?’ But what I’d forgotten was that they’d arranged it so that it had to go in Barbra’s key and then in my key. So, to get from Barbra’s key into mine was kind of difficult, and I had to launch in not knowing what key I was in. Mine was lower, hers was higher. It wasn’t easy at all! [But] she was great.”

“I’ve always loved singing duets with gifted artists,” the star wrote on her Facebook page. when the album was announced on April 30. “They inspire me in unique and different ways…and make our time in the studio a joy! My new album gave me the chance to work and play with some of my old friends, label mates, and new artists too. I admire all of them… and I hope that you’ll enjoy listening to our collaborations as much as I enjoyed recording with all of my wonderful partners.”

Streisand shares her surprise upon discovering the rich history of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

Barbra Streisand The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2 Track and Artist Listing
1. THE FIRST TIME EVER I SAW YOUR FACE – Hozier
2. MY VALENTINE – Paul McCartney
3. TO LOSE YOU AGAIN – Sam Smith
4. THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU – Bob Dylan
5. LETTER TO MY 13 YEAR OLD SELF – Laufey
6. ONE HEART, ONE VOICE – Mariah Carey & Ariana Grande
7. I LOVE US – Tim McGraw
8. SECRET O’ LIFE – James Taylor
9. FRAGILE – Sting
10. WHERE DO I GO FROM YOU? – Josh Groban
11. LOVE WILL SURVIVE – Seal