The French chanteuse Barbara, who would have been 90 this year, defined the meaning of relationships for an entire generation. A million people packed the streets of Paris for her funeral and her songs are still heard at state occasions.

Norman Lebrecht, who made a BBC documentary of her life in 2011, looks back at Barbara through the prism of powerful Jewish women who burst upon the world from the mid-19th century – Sarah Bernhardt, Barbara, Golda Meir, and Barbara Streisand.

Norman Lebrecht is the world’s bestselling author on classical music. His most recent book was the critically acclaimed Why Mahler? His Whitbread Award-winning novel, The Song of Names, is currently being developed into a feature film. Aside from the history of Western music, he has a lifelong passion for the culture and chronicles of the Jewish people. He lives in London.