Olivia Newton John died on 8 Aug 2022 at the age of 73

She was first diagnosed with  cancer 30 years ago in 1992.

Olivia was born in Cambridge, England in September 1948 but moved to Australia in 1954 when her father took up the post of Professor in German in Australia. He had worked as a spy during world war 2

She started singing in clubs and coffee cafes and was encouraged to enter a talent contest. She won.

Her break came in 1971 when she turned Bob Dylan' s song "If not for you" into a hit.

She was a well loved singer who won 4 Grammy awards and 7 American #1 hit awards. She had a voice that was smooth and sweet.

Most of her songs are of sweet pop or soft rock genres and in later years became country.

Perhaps she will be best remember for her role in the  1978 movie,Grease. That movie was the best grossing  (highest revenue) musical for 3 decades.

She starred as the sweet Australian girl Sandy  who attended an American high school. Sandy was hopelessly devoted to  Danny played by John Travolta.

She started in that movie a sweet girl-next-door type. That changed as she wore skin tight spandax pants and became a dancing queen with Danny.

That movie had 3 hit songs sung by Olivia, including "Hopelessly devoted to you" and "Summer Nights" and had dancing that will be long remembered. 

The clothes they wore became a fashion craze of tight pants.

Linda Ronstadt and Marie Osmond were also considered for the role of Sandy. Olivia almost turned down that role because at the age of 29 she was concerned about playing the role of a teenager. She insisted on a screen test to confirm that she could do the task before she accepted the role.

The fact that the 29 year old Olivia can act as a 18 years old teenager proves how good looking and youthful looking she was.

A 1981 album named "Physical" was also somewhat a departure of her sweet innocent girl image. It was not actually refering to sexual activity but physical exercise in an era of a gym craze.

However the tight gym clothes she wore as she performed exercises sparked accusations of showing sexiness. This was at a time when society was much more prudish. The current songs and movies are much more sexual than what Olivia did in "Physical"

Olivia loves animals and has a ranch in California, USA. This ranch is where she was in when she died. The video at the end of this post includes the ranch.

Olivia is a philanthropist and she has a foundation that supports charities and medical research, the Olivia Newton John Foundation.

She always support and encourage the staff at the Olivia Newton John Cancer, Wellness and Research Centre
She was also an animal welfare campaigner.

Her philanthropy and, contribution to medical research and animal welfare campaigning were recognised by Queen Elizabeth of UK who awarded her with damehood (equivalent to knighthood) in 2020.

Many famous artistes like Cliff Richard, John Travolta, Kylie Minogue, Dionne Warwick and Australia's Prime minister Anthony Albanese have come out to pay tribute to Dame Olivia.

She is survived by her husband since 2008, John Easterling and her daughter Chloe Lattanzi. Her family has requested that donations be made to the Olivia Newton John Foundation instead of sending flowers.

Here is a link to interviews with Olivia and clips of her songs and scenes from the movie Grease. In the interviews, Olivia showed that she has have a full life and faced death courageously 🦋