Grammy-winning superstar Olivia Newton-John dominates the pop, country, adult contemporary and dance charts with hits like “Physical” and “You’re the One That I Want.” and won countless hearts as everyone’s favorite Sandy. The blockbuster movie version of ‘Grease’ has died. She was 73 years old.
Longtime Australian resident Newton-John, who sold over 100 million records, died Monday on his ranch in Southern California, her husband John Easterling wrote on Instagram and Facebook.
“Olivia has been a symbol of victory and hope, sharing her battle with breast cancer for over 30 years,” he wrote. Thank you.”
From 1973 to 1983, Newton-John was one of the world’s most popular entertainers. She has had 14 of her Top 10 singles in the US alone, has won four Grammy Awards, and has performed with John Herr Travolta on “Grease” and Gene Kelly on “Xanadu.” The fast-paced Travolta, Newton, and John duet “You’re the One That I Want” was one of her biggest songs of the era, selling over 15 million copies.
Released in 1981, the bouncy, R-rated smash hit “Physical” remained at number one for 10 straight weeks and was voted Billboard’s Song of the Year despite being banned by some radio stations. Selected for the year. Filmed in the early days of MTV, a promo clip for aerobics won him a Grammy Award for Best Video.
Both musically and image-wise, she reinvented herself during that time. He favored mild pop-country songs such as “Mellow” and soft-breathing ballads such as the 1975 Grammy-winning “I Orent Love You.” She won Best Female Pop Vocal and Record of the Year awards. But she picked up the tempo with “Grease,” especially after Sandy ditched her white sweater and blouse into waist-high black leather pants. He said to her who was to become, “There’s nothing left to talk about/unless it’s level,” and finally, “Get the animals! Animals!”
“I recorded it, and all of a sudden, ‘Well, I might have overdone it!'” she said. He said, “It’s too late. It’s already on the radio and climbing the charts. I’m horrified!”
Fans flooded social media to mourn her death. I miss her.” Gabrielle Union said she has seen “Xanadu” with her sister “more times than I can count.”
She had a few hits after “Physical,” but her career declined and Newton-John was more likely to be in the news because of her private life. Her father died while she was preparing for , and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her marriage to actor Matt Rattange, who had a daughter with actor and singer Chloe Rattange, ended in 1995, ending her longtime relationship with photographer Patrick McDermott mysteriously. disappeared during a fishing trip in California in 2005, and remained missing for years afterward. There are many reports claiming he was living in Mexico with his new girlfriend.
“He was lost at sea. No one knows what happened,” Newton-John told Australian program 60 Minutes in 2016. But as you know, those are the things in life that you have to accept and let go of. ”
Newton-John’s recent album included “Stronger Than Before”. Holiday his collaboration with Travolta, “This Christmas,” the autobiographical “Gaia: One Woman’s Journey,” was inspired by his battle with cancer and the death of his father.
Dionne Warwick, who featured Newton-John on her 2006 album My Friends and Me, wrote online, “Another angelic voice joins Heaven’s choir.” . And Lea Salonga writes: Her voice was one of my childhood voices. ”
Newton-John married John Easterling, founder of Amazon Herb Company, in 2008. She has been involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme, and as a National Spokeswoman for the Children’s Health Environmental Coalition. She also founded her Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Center in Melbourne, Australia.
Newton-John was the daughter of German literature professor Bryn Newton-John and Irene Bourne, whose father was the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Bourne. The Newton-John family moved to Australia when Olivia was five years old, but Olivia returned to England in her teens to live with her mother after her parents separated. Although she had early dreams of becoming a veterinarian, she won a singing contest in high school, toured army bases and clubs before she turned 20, and released her first single, “Till You Say You”. We recorded ‘ll Be Mine’. In 1971, she covered Bob Dylan’s “If Not For You” and began a close partnership with her Australian friend John Farrar. Another hit for her.
Since childhood, she has loved country music, especially the records of “Tennessee” Ernie Ford, but her early success failed to impress critics and fellow musicians. In her Village Voice review, she likened her to a geisha who “makes her voice lower than she actually is to please men”. Tammy Wynette helped found the Country Entertainers Association when Newton-John beat out Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn as her top artists for her 1973 Country Music Her Association.
But Newton-John had show business admirers, and along with her became one of cinema’s most unforgettable teams. Travolta was in the stage version of ‘Grease’ and thought that Newton-John would be the ‘ultimate’ Sandy in the planned film.
“At 29, I was worried that I was too old to play a schoolgirl,” Newton-John, who insisted on taking a screen test before accepting the role, told The Telegraph in 2017. Told. If I had to pick my favorite moment, it was the transformation from Sandy 1 to what I call Sandy 2. I played a different character and had to wear different clothes. When I appeared on One That I Want, I had a very different reaction from the guys on set.
She is survived by her husband. her daughter Chloe Rattanzi; her sister Sarah Newton-John; Brother Toby Newton-John. and several nieces and nephews.