Singer Olivia Newton-John, who soared to the highest of the world’s pop music charts within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties with such tunes as “I Truthfully Love You” and “Bodily” and starred within the hit film musical “Grease,” died on Monday at age 73 at her house in Southern California.
The demise of the British-born, Australian-raised performer was introduced on her Instagram account, saying she “handed away peacefully” at her ranch house “surrounded by household and buddies.”
Newton-John, a four-time Grammy winner, had disclosed in 2017 {that a} recurrence of breast most cancers had metastasized and unfold to her decrease again, forcing her to cancel performances. Twenty-five years earlier Newton-John had undergone a partial mastectomy, main her to turn out to be an advocate for breast most cancers analysis and different well being points and to determine a most cancers treatment-research facility in Australia.
The entertainer started performing as a toddler and have become a world celebrity after transferring to america. She was blond, blue-eyed and brimming with wholesomeness when she had her first hit in 1971 with “If Not for You” – a Bob Dylan music that additionally had been recorded by George Harrison.
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It will be adopted within the subsequent few years by “Let Me Be There,” which gained her a Grammy for finest feminine nation vocal efficiency, “If You Love Me (Let Me Know)” and two No. 1 songs, “Have You By no means Been Mellow” and “I Truthfully Love You.” The latter music gained Grammys for finest feminine pop efficiency and report of the 12 months.
Newton-John additionally clinched the Nation Music Affiliation’s feminine singer of the 12 months title in 1974, edging out such homegrown American stars as Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. The unlikely success of an Australian performing country-flavored pop songs bothered many Nashville purists on the time.
Critics didn’t at all times take care of Newton-John’s work, usually discovering her type frothy and overly business. The New York Occasions as soon as described her voice as “almost colorless.”
MOVIE STARDOM WITH ‘GREASE’
However the criticism didn’t harm Newton-John’s gross sales, and she or he cemented her acclaim by co-starring with John Travolta in “Grease,” the 1978 movie that will turn out to be some of the standard musicals in Hollywood historical past.
Within the movie, set within the Nineteen Fifties, Newton-John’s prim character, Sandy, has a summer season fling with Danny, the “greaser” portrayed by Travolta, however the relationship falls aside over cultural variations. Ultimately they reconcile as their roles reverse, with Danny cleansing up his act, and Sandy making a putting look in a good, black leather-based outfit.
Travolta, 68, addressed a tribute to his co-star on Instagram, saying her “affect was unbelievable.”
“My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so a lot better,” the actor wrote. “I like you a lot. We are going to see you down the highway and we’ll all be collectively once more. Yours from the primary second I noticed you and eternally! your Danny, your John!”
The movie’s producer, Allan Carr, had sought Newton-John for the feminine lead after being impressed by her at a cocktail party, and Travolta additionally urged her to take the half.
The singer was initially reluctant due to her destructive expertise within the awkwardly titled 1970 British movie flop “Toomorrow” and apprehensive about hurting her recording profession. She additionally was involved about doing an American accent, so the half was rewritten to make Sandy an Australian.
The movie, primarily based on the 1972 Broadway hit musical of the identical title, was a significant important and business success, and its soundtrack generated a string of hits, together with the title music, Newton-John’s “Hopelessly Dedicated to You,” “Summer season Nights,” and her bouncy duet with Travolta, “You are the One That I Need.”
“I am grateful for ‘Grease,'” she advised the Detroit Information in 2016. “The film and the songs are nonetheless so cherished.”
Her subsequent musical movie, “Xanadu” in 1980, was a bust however did give Newton-John extra hits within the title music and “Magic,” which reached No. 1.
In 1981 Newton-John scored her largest hit single, “Bodily.” The music’s accompanying video featured her in work-out garments and a scarf, which fueled a style pattern. Its sex-infused lyrics (“there’s nothing left to speak about except it is horizontally, let’s get bodily”) eroded her good-girl picture and led some radio stations to ban it.
Newton-John’s profession cooled off after “Bodily” however in 2015 she had one other No. 1 hit on the dance charts – “You Need to Imagine,” a revamped model of “Magic” carried out together with her solely little one, Chloe Lattanzi.
She would make one other film with Travolta, “Two of a Variety” in 1983, they usually recorded an album of Christmas songs in 2012.
Newton-John, whose sister died of mind most cancers, grew to become an advocate after her first bout with breast most cancers, and she or he based the Olivia Newton-John Most cancers Wellness and Analysis Centre in her hometown of Melbourne. She additionally marketed what was often called the Olivia Breast Self-Examination Equipment.
Newton-John, whose grandfather was German-born, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, completed fourth within the 1974 Eurovision Music Contest, representing the UK.
Her first marriage, to “Xanadu” actor Matt Lattanzi, resulted in divorce in 1995, and in 2008 she married businessman John Easterling.
(Writing by Invoice Trott; Extra reporting by Ismail Shakil; Enhancing by Diane Craft, Steve Gorman and Rosalba O’Brien)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
