On April 25 — the day after her 82nd birthday — Barbra Streisand released “Love Will Survive,” the 10-time Grammy winner’s first new single in six years, as well as another first: Never before has she recorded an end-title theme song for a television series. The poignant ballad, which showcases Streisand’s still-commanding vocal prowess, is on the soundtrack of Peacock’s six-part Holocaust drama “The Tattooist of Auschwitz,” based on Heather Morris’ bestselling book. Starring Harvey Keitel and Melanie Lynskey, the limited series tells the story of a concentration camp prisoner made to tattoo the ID numbers on his fellow prisoners, even as he falls in love.
The Envelope was curious as to how Streisand’s involvement came about. The star answered our questions via email. How did this project and song find you — and how did it all come together? Timing is everything.
I happened to be working on a special new album when the gifted composer (and my onetime neighbor) Hans Zimmer reached out to one of my producers, Peter Asher, to ask if I’d be open to hearing a theme he and co-composer Kara Talve wrote for a TV series based on the book “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.” Obviously, with all that’s going on in the world today, the subject matter was of great personal interest to me, but the music cue was just that — a lovely piece of writing but not a full song. I asked my other producer, Walter Afanasieff, if he could transform Hans and Kara’s theme int.