Lea Michele during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Oct. 9, 2017.
Following her Elsie Fest performance in Central Park, Lea Michele joined Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show on Monday night (Oct. 9) to talk about that one time she sang in front of her all-time idol Barbra Streisand.
Michele had opened her performance at the festival created by former Glee co-star Darren Criss with “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” one of Fallon’s favorite songs. Fallon explained, “I remember seeing you perform that on Glee and I was like, crying my brains out.”
Michele then explained the nerves that come with singing that classic, and how she had it removed from the Glee world tour after forgetting the lyrics on stage one time. Fallon asked why she didn’t have a teleprompter for such a long song, to which Michele replied, “I mean, I had so many of the words written on my arms. It’s like, rain, butter, apples, pears! Parade!”
After a quick shout-out to Michele’s early 2017 album Places, Fallon asked Michele whether or not Streisand had ever seen her sing in person. Michele performed at the Music Cares gala the night before the 2011 Grammy’s, which honored Streisand and the singer explained she sang “My Man,” channeling her nerves by focusing on the dog sitting on Streisand’s lap rather than making eye contact with her idol.
In a made-for-the-movies moment, the two singers were pulled away from each other and unable to meet. Outside at the valet stand, though, Streisand nonchalantly tapped Michele’s shoulder and said, “Lea, you were great. Did I sound good tonight?” Michele, currently starring in the ABC comedy The Mayor, concluded the story as any super fan would, “And now I’m dead. And I died there that night, and everything has been a dream ever since.”
Watch the entire interview, below.