Olivia newton john age 201912/28/2023 ![]() Over the next few years, Newton-John recorded prolifically and even represented the UK at Eurovision. Its title track, a lovely country-pop cover of Bob Dylan‘s ‘If Not For You’, modelled on a previous remake by George Harrison, became her first hit single. ![]() It didn’t pay off at first, but in time she formed a successful touring duo with fellow Australian Pat Carroll, then gained enough momentum as a solo artist to record her debut album in 1971. In 1965, after winning a TV talent show, 17-year-old Newton-John was persuaded by her mother to move to the UK to pursue a singing career. Newton-John would later receive top honours from both countries: in 2019, she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) and a Dame of the British Empire (DBE). When she was six, her father accepted a professor’s post at the University of Melbourne and the family moved to Australia. Her maternal grandfather, Max Born, was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who played a key role in the development of quantum mechanics. Newton-John was actually born in Cambridge, England on Septemto a British family with serious academic pedigree. Kylie Minogue, a fellow Australian who also became a globe-conquering pop star, tweeted last night after news of her death broke: “Since I was ten years old, I have loved and looked up to Olivia Newton-John. Grease was – and still is – such a phenomenon that it would have defined most performers’ careers, but Newton-John, who has died of cancer aged 73, had iconic and highly influential moments both before and after it. Trouper that she was, she performed the song at the following year’s Academy Awards despite feeling “terrible” after contracting hepatitis from bad seafood. She also duetted with co-star John Travolta on two of the biggest hits from the blockbuster soundtrack album, ‘You’re The One That I Want’ and ‘Summer Nights’, and had a standout solo moment with ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’, a country-flavoured ballad that was nominated for an Oscar. Olivia Newton-John guaranteed her place in pop culture history when she purred “tell me about it, stud” at the end of Grease, the 1978 musical film that has become part of each subsequent generation’s childhood.
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