Olivia Newton-John (September 26, 1948 – August 8, 2022) was a British-Australian actress and singer.

She first rose to fame in the ‘70s as a country singer with her albums If Not For You (1971), Olivia (1972), and Let Me Be There (1973). The title song of the latter was Olivia’s first U.S. Top 10 single and led her to winning a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocalists.

In 1974, she represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Long Live Love” and came in fourth place. The same year, she released the album, If You Love Me, Let Me Know, which spawned two hits songs, the title track and “I Honestly Love You,” which became her first number-one song in the U.S and won two Grammys Awards, including Record Of The Year. In early 1975, her fifth studio album, Have You Ever Been Mellow was released and saw the success of the title song (Olivia’s second number-one song in the USA) and “Please Mr. Please.” Then, between 1975 and 1977, she released the albums Clearly Love, Come On Over, Don’t Stop Believin', and Making A Good Thing Better, which weren’t as successful as her former albums.

In 1978, she starred alongside John Travolta in the musical film Grease, which was a big worldwide success. The original soundtrack of the movie was also very successful, becoming one of the best-selling soundtrack albums of all time, while the song “You’re the One That I Want,” a duet between her and John Travolta, hit number one in both US and UK. In 1979, she released the album Totally Hot with the hit single “A Little More Love.”

Olivia Newton-John started the ‘80s by starring in the movie Xanadu, which was a box-office and critical disappointment. However, the original motion picture soundtrack became a success and the songs “Magic” and “Xanadu” hit success in the USA.

In 1981, she released her most successful album, Physical, which sold 10 millions copies worldwide, while its title song spent ten weeks at number one in the USA and became her signature song. The following year, she achieved success with the song “Heart Attack,” taken from Olivia’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2, and in 1983, she starred alongside John Travolta again in the film Two Of A Kind. While it was a critical and financial failure, its soundtrack however was successful, with its song “Twist Of Fate” being Olivia’s last top-ten hit single in the USA. She continued to release music, with less success but still a big popularity.

During her life, Olivia Newton-John struggled with breast cancer and the disease returned several times. She died from the cancer on August 8, 2022, at the age of 73.

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