At the third time, the disease overcame his resistance. It was 1992 when, while she was promoting the Back to Basics collection, Olivia Newton-John was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She had won it a first time, a second time, then, in 2019, she had announced on TV the recurrence of the evil, now at an advanced stage. Yesterday, the 73-year-old “Grease” diva gave up: she died on her ranch in South Carolina.
English by birth (Cambridge, 26 September 1948) she moved to Australia with her family at the age of 5, starting to sing as a child. A competition for her new voices wins her a trip to England, where she finds her first record deal and her first single. She gets the bones-including musicals-with Tomorrow, then begins the collaboration with John Farrar, her future author and producer of reference. Cliff Richard takes it under his wing, in 1974 he arrives fourth in the “Eurovision song contest”, success arrives: “If you love me (let me know)” is first in the standings in Canada and second in Australia, “I honestly love you »always breaks through in Canada, Australia and Sweden and gives her the first Grammy Awards.
Graceful, nice, agile, a clean image, in 1978 she was chosen for the role of Sandy Olsson in “Grease” when Randal Kleiser brings Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s musical to the big screen. It is an «American graffiti» with John Travolta in the role of Danny Zuko. The plot is thin, but the songs give the film a record, that of the most successful musical in the history of cinema. She, alone or in a duet with Travolta, or in a larger company chirps sugary in “Summer nights”, “You’re the one that I want”, “Sandy” and the megahit “Hoplessy devoted to you”.
As if that weren’t enough to repeat the triumph in the same year Olivia churns out with the LP «Totally hot». Two years and another musical arrives, «Xanadu» (alongside Gene Kelly), less fortunate in theaters, but winning in the hit parades all over the world, thanks to the usual Farrar, but above all to the Electric Light Orchestra. It is his golden moment, in 1981 the single «Physical» launches the self-titled album, a star on the Walk of Fame, the lead role in a soap opera, a sold out international tour.
Still hits, still Grammy Awards, but it’s hard to stay at that level. The music is changing, the cinema re-proposes the couple with Travolta in «Due come noi», still a half fiasco, saved a little by the soundtrack. She smells the wind, in 1984 she opens a chain of stores (Koala Blue) with her friend Pat Carroll (Farrar’s wife). She collaborates with Barry Gibb (hers was the theme of “Grease”, entrusted to Frankie Valli), marries the Italian-born actor Matt Lattanzi and gives birth to Chloe-Rose. She then she decides to retire to be a mother.
Two years and back on stage with «The rumor», by no less than Elton John & Bernie Taupin, in the lineup there is also an English version, translated by Davitt Sigerson, of «All life» by Lucio Dalla. In 1992, the tumor appears, she announces it in a press conference (“I want to avoid alarmism,” she said) and then cancels all the commitments to start the most difficult and longest battle of her life, undergoing a total mastectomy followed by chemotherapy, while , of carcinoma, his father dies.
Convalescente, he recounts his experience in the songs “Gaia, one woman’s journey” and tries to take back his career. Musically displaced by new trends, she still finds herself alongside Cliff Richards or at the cinema (“A party for Nick”). She divorces Lattanzi, she goes to live with the cameraman Patrick Kim McDermott, her companion for almost ten years. In 2001 she duets on record with Richard Marx, Tina Arena, Keith Urban, Barren Hayes, Billy Thorpe and Michael McDonald. In 2004 she reinterprets the repertoire of great performers dear to her. In 2006, her new album can only be purchased in a chain of American department stores (Walgreens) or through a website: it has a new age sound, inspired by the spiritual laws of the Ayurvedic doctor Deepak Chopra, who was close to her during the period of disease.
A virtual duet with Elvis Presley, an appearance in the first season of “Glee”the role of a desperate mother-in-law in Stephan Elliott’s “Three Men and a Sheep”, more tours and records, a triumphal residency in Las Vegas, a Christmas song record with John Travolta, a duet with his daughter Chloe Lattanzi, ” Have to believe ”, which brings it back to the top of the rankings.
In 2017 comes the much feared relapse. Cancel all commitments, breast cancer this time presents with metastases. She fights like a lioness, deludes herself and deludes us that she has made it once again. But in 2019 …
“We will meet again along the way and we will be united again, together again. I’ve always been yours from the first moment I saw you and always will be. Your Danny, your John “: the memory of Travolta moved yesterday:” My dear Olivia you have done so much to make our lives better. Your impact has been incredible. I love you so much”.
Dead Olivia Newton-John, the tale of “Grease” has lost its star