The Sound of Silence: Barbra Streisand’s Defiant Refusal to Sing for the World’s Elite at Davos Becomes Her Loudest Anthem
The crystal chandeliers of the Davos Congress Centre shivered not from the resonance of a legendary voice, but from the crushing weight of an unexpected silence that fell over the world’s most powerful room last night. It was the closing Gala of the World Economic Forum, an event designed to be a glittering seal on a week of high-level discourse, attended by three hundred of the planet’s most influential figures—from G7 heads of state to the architects of Big Tech and the titans of the fossil fuel industry. They had gathered with the expectation of being serenaded by Barbra Streisand, the EGOT-winning icon whose voice has provided the soundtrack to American life for six decades.1 However, what unfolded was not a concert, but a confrontation that shattered the comfortable atmosphere of the summit and made headlines across the globe before the sun rose over the Swiss Alps.
