Rachel Bloom Loves Barbra Streisand, And 5 More Confessions From Her Billboard Interview
Image by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
By Talya Zax October 23, 2016
Rachel Bloom won hearts this past year with “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” the comic musical CW show she created and stars in. In advance of Friday’s Season 2 premier, she sat down with Billboard’s Danielle Bacher to dish on her favorite musicians, first slow dance, and more. Here are 6 of the coolest things she revealed.
1) She adores Barbra Streisand
No surprises here — Bloom is crazy for Barbra! Streisand “has such a sweeping, emotive voice and it’s so unique,” Bloom gushed, “when she gets to the top and it gets this chained wailing, it makes it sound so effortless and very specific to her.” Bloom listed Streisand as one of her two favorite artists of all time. The other? Ben Folds.
2) Weird Al makes her cry
Given Bloom’s aptitude for writing subtly biting, hilarious lyrics — check out Season 1’s “JAP Rap” for some surprisingly wicked Yiddish zings — we should have known she’d love Weird Al. She told Bacher the first song she remembers making her laugh was “Weird Al’s ‘Fat’ or ‘Eat It.’” She recently saw him in concert, and still found him hilarious. “My husband and I had tears rolling down our cheeks,” she said.
3) She wants Monty Python to play at her funeral
Asked what song she’d want played at her funeral, Bloom was quick to choose something characteristically funny. “‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ by Monty Python,” she said. “I would like it because it’s a true, unsentimental look at life that still is beautiful and makes me want to cry.”
4) She was inspired by Beyoncé’s “Lemonade”
She decided to spend a lot of the budget for Season 2 on the first episode, partially to honor Queen Bey. “I wanted to do a symbolic, beautiful Beyonce [sic]-type style number,” she said. She was pleased with the result, saying “it feels like a beautiful short film.” Watch it below.
5) Her 8th-grade boyfriend was named Willy
Her first real slow dance was with him. It might have been *NSYNC. Romance!
6) She almost drowned when she was 5
“I remember the feeling of drowning and then my dad jumped in the pool and got me out,” she told Bacher. Does it still haunt her? Well, she did also say “I think every second we are not fearing death we are trying to blissfully distract ourselves.” So, unclear.
Read the full interview here.
Talya Zax is the Forward’s culture fellow. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
