A Little More Love For Olivia Newton-John Whose Art Runs Free Evermore

Her mother convinced Olivia Newton-John, at 17, to come to the UK in 1965 after she won a TV talent competition so she could pursue a singing career. Although it didn't initially pay off, she eventually teamed up with fellow Australian Pat Carroll to establish a successful touring duo, which helped her acquire enough momentum to make her debut album in 1971.

Its title tune, a charming country-pop rendition of Bob Dylan's If Not For You that was based on an earlier George Harrison reworking, became her debut success.

Olivia Newton-John Death

Even before the demise of the cultural icon, most people probably think of ONJ's renowned stellar performance as Sandy in Grease when they first consider her. However, most of us have already seen Grease and are aware of its merits.

Newton-John made a tonne of recordings during the ensuing years and even represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest. Her submission, a romantic ballad titled Long Live Love that the British people had picked for her, came in a respectable fourth place in the 1974 competition, which was famously won by ABBA.

Soon after, with a string of successes like Have You Never Been Mellow and I Honestly Love You, Newton-John became a prominent force on the US pop, country, and adult contemporary charts.

Most of us probably don't consider her 1980 musical fantasy film Xanadu as quickly. Xanadu has not exactly endured as well as Grease or established itself as a classic. However, now is the best moment to give Xanadu a chance because it is still very much worth watching (or re-watching). And so, is listening to her music.

Xanadu falls into this genre in many respects and is comparable to other campy cult musicals like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Mamma Mia films. Xanadu has components that resemble a bizarre fusion of previous films and something far more irrational, such as unexpectedly catchy tunes to memorable surprise scenes and choreographed cast-wide dances that capture the energy and fire audiences adore about major musicals.

Newton-John was ideal for the role of the gullible Sandy because of her dulcet familiarity as a singer. Newton-John only got the part through pure luck. She was seated next to Grease producer Allan Carr at a dinner gathering, and he claimed that despite her advanced age, she could still play an adolescent. Newton-John was so hesitant about the part that she insisted on having a screen test with John Travolta before agreeing to play it.

One of the greatest film debuts of all time was the outcome of her performance. The juxtaposition between Newton-John's politeness and innocence throughout the performance of Hopelessly Devoted to You and her fallen-woman character at the end of the movie makes the entire thing seem like a comedic commentary on the influence of costume and popular fantasy.

The reason Xanadu hasn't yet become one of the most renowned cult musicals or a classic with midnight showings in some cinema theatre every Friday night isn't for want of having the necessary components.

With her classic Physical album, a swerve into dance-pop, Newton-John accomplished perhaps her most ambitious reinvention a year after Xanadu. In recent years, Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa have both cited the album's provocative title track ("There's nothing left to talk about until it's horizontally") as an example of its influence.

The 1983 new wave anthem Twist Of Fate from the soundtrack to the film Two of a Kind showcased Newton- John's talent for dance-pop. Her life-changing experience with breast cancer, though, led her to lean into a gently uplifting new-age sound on many of her more recent recordings.

Her career continued intermittently, but with a contagious sense of humour, through the '90s and beyond. In the 2000 independent film Sordid Lives and its television adaptation, she was given an out-of-character role as a seedy bar singer/arsonist. In a 2010 episode of Glee, she gamely paid homage to her Physical video.

John, 73, was a cheerful artist with feathered hair and a jazzy, calming tone as a young pop singer who passed away on Monday after a long battle with breast cancer. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, she was extremely open about it and changed course to create albums about her condition and her struggle to remain strong in the face of it.

Suggested Reading: Three Lessons Olivia Newton-John Taught Me About Music And Life

She interrupted the normal small talk during a television interview with Hoda Kotb, a fellow breast cancer survivor, to inquire about Kotb's wellbeing. This small show of concern nearly brought Kotb to tears. In the end, Newton-John's Sandra Dee spirit outshone her inner firebrand by a wide margin.

The views expressed are the author's own.