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-Singer Olivia Newton-John, who soared to the highest of the world’s pop music charts within the Seventies and Eighties with such tunes as “I Actually Love You” and “Bodily” and starred within the hit film musical “Grease,” died on Monday at age 73 at her dwelling 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 dwelling “surrounded by household and associates.”
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 change into an advocate for breast most cancers analysis and different well being points and to ascertain a most cancers treatment-research facility in Australia.
The entertainer started performing as a toddler and have become a world celebrity after transferring to the US. 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.
It might be adopted within the subsequent few years by “Let Me Be There,” which received 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 Actually Love You.” The latter music received Grammys for finest feminine pop efficiency and document of the yr.
Newton-John additionally clinched the Nation Music Affiliation’s feminine singer of the yr 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 all the time take care of Newton-John’s work, typically discovering her fashion frothy and overly business. The New York Occasions as soon as described her voice as “almost colorless.”
MOVIESTARDOMWITH ‘GREASE’
However the criticism didn't damage Newton-John’s gross sales, and he or she cemented her acclaim by co-starring with John Travolta in “Grease,” the 1978 movie that may change into one of the common musicals in Hollywood historical past.
Within the movie, set within the Nineteen Fifties, Newton-John’s prim character, Sandy, has a summer time 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 hanging look in a good, black leather-based outfit.
Travolta, 68, addressed a tribute to his co-star on Instagram, saying her “influence 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 are going to all be collectively once more. Yours from the primary second I noticed you and without end! 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 frightened 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 identify, was a serious essential and business success, and its soundtrack generated a string of hits, together with the title music, Newton-John’s “Hopelessly Dedicated to You,” “Summer time Nights,” and her bouncy duet with Travolta, “You’re the One That I Need.”
“I’m 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 headscarf, which fueled a style pattern. Its sex-infused lyrics (“there’s nothing left to speak about except it’s 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 baby, 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, turned an advocate after her first bout with breast most cancers, and he or she based the Olivia Newton-John Most cancers Wellness and Analysis Centre in her hometown of Melbourne. She additionally marketed what was referred to as the Olivia Breast Self-Examination Package.
Newton-John, whose grandfather was German-born, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, completed fourth within the 1974 Eurovision Tune 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.
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