Farewell to Olivia Newton-John, singer and actress star of Grease

She left us today, at the age of 73, the celebrated Anglo-Australian singer and actress Olivia Newton-John, best known for playing Sandy Olsson in the musical Grease opposite John Travolta, who played the role of her love interest, Danny Zuko. Announcing her passing was her husband, producer John Easterling. Olivia Newton-John had been battling cancer (specifically breast cancer) for nearly 30 years: the disease had returned in 2017, forcing her to suspend one of her tours to resume treatment. By 2019, the disease had progressed to an advanced stage, but that still did not stop her from working and, more importantly, pursuing her cancer awareness work.

Born in Cambridge, England, in 1948, the daughter of Welsh parents (Brinley Newton-John and Irene Helene Born), she moved with her family to Australia when she was five years old, where she began her career as an actress and singer. After winning a television contest for new musical talent in 1965, she won a trip to Britain as her prize: from the following year she linked up again with the country of her birth, where she recorded her first single, Till you say you’ll be mine, at the age of eighteen. It took five years, however, for his first solo album, released in 1971 under the title If not for you (in fact, he had previously worked with his band, Toomorrow). The record was a great success, and the title track reached number 25 on the U.S. charts. The next single, Banks of the Ohio, reached the top 10 in both the UK and Australia, and Olivia Newton-John for two consecutive years was voted best British female vocalist by Record Mirror magazine. Her palmares also include, in 1974, a fourth-place finish at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Long Live Love, while the subsequent single I Honestly Love You reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in Canada, Australia, and Sweden and earned her two Grammy Awards (for recording of the year and best female pop vocal performance).

The pinnacle of popularity came in 1978 when she was assigned the part of Sandy in the famous Grease, to date the most successful musical in film history: after this experience, the singer released the album Totally Hot, which went platinum. On the wave of Grease’s success, Olivia Newton-John participated in 1980 in another musical, Xanadu, which met with little success in the cinema, but the song of the same name became one of the biggest recording hits of the period. Again, another hit came in 1981: Physical, a song followed by the album of the same name that won several gold and platinum records, and earned him other Grammys (best pop singer, best video, best single, and best artist). That same year he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and went on a highly successful worldwide tour.

In 1984 she opens with her friend Pat Carroll the clothing chain Koala Blue, records the song Face to Face together with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, and in 1986 her first daughter, Chloe-Rose, was born with her first husband, the Italian-American actor Matt Lattanzi. There followed a partial retirement from the stage to be a full-time mother: however, Olivia Newton-John returned in 1988 with the album The Rumour, another gold record (a curiosity: the tracks include an English adaptation of Lucio Dalla’s Tutta la vita ). In 1989, for the third time (after Grease and after the 1983 film Two Like Us ) Olivia Newton-John worked with John Travolta, notably on the video for Michael Jackson’s single Liberian Girl. In 1992 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and again retired from the stage to undergo treatment. She did not stop composing, however: she would return to touring in 1999.

Her career continued amid several successes: international tours, concerts with the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra (2008), the award as Living National Treasure given by the National Trust of Australia (2012), the duet Have to Believe together with her daughter Chloe-Rose Lattanzi that reached No. 1 in the charts, new albums. Until the relapse of the disease, announced in 2017.

“Olivia,” said husband John Easterling, “has been a symbol of triumph and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer. Her inspiration in healing and pioneering experience with plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to plant medicine and cancer research.”

Farewell to Olivia Newton-John, singer and actress star of Grease

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