Barbra Streisand has released Don’t Lie to Me, a new song that takes aim at Donald Trump.
Over a bombastic string-laden backing, Streisand sings: “How do you win if we all lose? / You change the facts to justify / Your lips move but your words get in the way” – an allusion to Trump’s notoriously liberal attitude to the truth, with the Washington Post calculating he has made 5,000 “false or misleading claims” since his presidency began.
She describes the American people as “on our knees”, and says “all that we built has come undone”. The song climaxes with the plea, “Can’t you see we’re crying? Where’s the new horizon?” before asking, “How do you sleep?”
While Trump isn’t mentioned by name, there are clear indicators that Streisand is singing about the US president, including lines like: “You can build towers of bronze and gold.”
It’s an explosive return for Streisand, who, at 76, is releasing one of the most politically outspoken songs of her career. A Hillary Clinton supporter, she has been a frequent critic of Trump in interviews, calling his prospective presidency “terrifyingly scary” in 2015, before saying earlier this year: “I call him the liar in chief, the misogynist in chief. He’s so crazed.” She said she believed that the 2016 election was rigged: “I do believe, like I believed during Bush, they were playing with those voter machines.” Yesterday, she tweeted: “Accused of sexual assault by 19 women … how did Trump get to be the President of the United States?”
Don’t Lie to Me is taken from her forthcoming album, Walls, her first collection of primarily original material since 2005 – she has released albums featuring cover versions in the interim, including 2014’s Partners, an album of duets with Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel and John Legend among others. In a tweet announcing the album, Streisand wrote: “This collection of songs reflects what’s been on my mind lately, and I look forward to sharing that with you.”
