{"id":1595280,"date":"2022-08-08T17:54:30","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T21:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1595280"},"modified":"2022-08-08T17:54:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T21:54:40","slug":"pop-music-and-grease-star-olivia-newton-john-dead-at-age-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pop-music-and-grease-star-olivia-newton-john-dead-at-age-73\/","title":{"rendered":"Pop music and \u2018Grease\u2019 star Olivia Newton-John dead at age 73"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpop-music-and-grease-star-olivia-newton-john-dead-at-age-73%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1595280&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>By Bill Trott<\/p>\n<p>Singer Olivia Newton-John, who soared to the top of the world\u2019s pop music charts in the 1970s and 1980s with such tunes as \u201cI Honestly Love You\u201d and \u201cPhysical\u201d and starred in the hit movie musical \u201cGrease,\u201d died on Monday at age 73 at her home in southern California.<\/p>\n<p>The death of the British-born, Australian-raised performer was announced on her Instagram account, saying she \u201cpassed away peacefully\u201d at her ranch home \u201csurrounded by family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Newton-John, a four-time Grammy winner, had disclosed several years ago that breast cancer had metastasized and spread to her back, forcing her to cancel performances. Twenty-five years earlier Newton-John had undergone a partial mastectomy and gone on to establish a cancer treatment-research facility in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The entertainer began performing as a child and became a global superstar after moving to the United States. She was blond, blue-eyed and brimming with wholesomeness when she had her first hit in 1971 with \u201cIf Not for You\u201d \u2013 a Bob Dylan song that also had been recorded by George Harrison. <\/p>\n<p>It would be followed in the next few years by \u201cLet Me Be There,\u201d which won her a Grammy for best female country vocal performance, \u201cIf You Love Me (Let Me Know)\u201d and two No. 1 songs, \u201cHave You Never Been Mellow\u201d and \u201cI Honestly Love You.\u201d The latter song won Grammys for best female pop performance and record of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Newton-John also beat out country stars Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton to win the Country Music Association\u2019s female singer of the year award in 1974. The unlikely success of an Australian in American country music bothered many Nashville purists.<\/p>\n<p>Critics also did not always care for Newton-John\u2019s work, often finding her frothy and overly commercial. The New York Times once described her voice as \u201cnearly colorless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MOVIE STARDOM WITH \u2018GREASE\u2019<\/p>\n<p>But the criticism did not hurt Newton-John\u2019s sales as she crossed over from the country charts to pop and cemented her acclaim by co-starring with John Travolta in \u201cGrease,\u201d the 1978 film that would become one of the most popular musicals in Hollywood history.<\/p>\n<p>Producer Allan Carr wanted Newton-John to play the female lead Sandy after being impressed by her at a dinner party, and Travolta also urged her to take the part. Newton-John was initially reluctant because of her negative experience in the awkwardly titled 1970 British film flop \u201cToomorrow\u201d and worried about hurting her singing career. She also was concerned about doing an American accent, so the part was rewritten to make Sandy an Australian.<\/p>\n<p>In the film, set in the 1950s, Newton-John\u2019s prim Sandy has a summer fling with Danny, the \u201cgreaser\u201d portrayed by Travolta, but the relationship falls apart because of their cultural differences. In the end they reconcile as their roles reverse, with Danny cleaning up his act and Sandy making a striking appearance in a tight black leather outfit. <\/p>\n<p>The 1978 film wowed critics and audiences, and its soundtrack generated a string of hits, including the title song, Newton-John\u2019s \u201cHopelessly Devoted to You,\u201d \u201cSummer Nights,\u201d and her bouncy duet with Travolta, \u201cYou\u2019re the One That I Want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m grateful for \u2018Grease,&#8217;\u201d she told the Detroit News in 2016. \u201cThe movie and the songs are still so loved.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Her next musical film, \u201cXanadu\u201d in 1980, was a bust but did give Newton-John more hits in the title song and \u201cMagic,\u201d which reached No. 1.<\/p>\n<p>In 1981 Newton-John scored her biggest hit single, \u201cPhysical.\u201d The song\u2019s accompanying video featured her in work-out clothes and a headband, which fueled a fashion trend. Its sex-infused lyrics (\u201cthere\u2019s nothing left to talk about unless it\u2019s horizontally, let\u2019s get physical\u201d) eroded her good-girl image and led some radio stations to ban it.<\/p>\n<p>Newton-John\u2019s career cooled off after \u201cPhysical\u201d but in 2015 she had another No. 1 hit on the dance charts \u2013 \u201cYou Have to Believe,\u201d a revamped version of \u201cMagic\u201d performed with her only child, Chloe Lattanzi.<\/p>\n<p>She would make another movie with Travolta, \u201cTwo of a Kind\u201d in 1983, and they recorded an album of Christmas songs in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Newton-John, whose sister died of brain cancer, became an advocate after her first bout with breast cancer and she established the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in her hometown of Melbourne. She also marketed what was known as the Olivia Breast Self-Exam Kit.<\/p>\n<p>Newton-John, whose grandfather was German-born Nobel laureate Max Born, a physicist, finished fourth in the 1974 Eurovision singing competition while representing the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>Her first marriage, to \u201cXanadu\u201d actor Matt Lattanzi, ended in divorce in 1995 and in 2008 she married businessman John Easterling.<\/p>\n<p> (Writing by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Diane Craft and Steve Gorman)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/?attachment_id=2735587\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI770RB-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI770RB-VIEWIMAGE\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Bill Trott Singer Olivia Newton-John, who soared to the top of the world\u2019s pop music charts in the 1970s and 1980s with such tunes as \u201cI Honestly Love You\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1595280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1595280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1595280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1595280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1595280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1595280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}