Luv Ya Olivia
IN THE past month, Olivia Newton-John has rekindled her status as one of this nation’s most beloved ambassadors. Thanks to a series of high-profile events surrounding the Olympics - including her memorable performance at the opening ceremony with John Farnham - Newton-John considers these past weeks the pinnacle of her career. “I’ve had a lot of wonderful moments,” she says, “Being out there on the stage and looking out was amazing.”
At the beginning of this year, Newton-John was retirement. Ironically, recent events have not only provided her with the most intense publicity of her career, but also coincide with her 30th anniversary in the industry.
“It’s wild, isn’t it!” she enthuses “I really didn’t think much more could happen to me. I thought I’d done it all. I thought I’d already had the icing on the cake and then all these incredible extra things have been just amazing. I feel very lucky and fortunate to have them happen to me and if nothing else happens, I’ve been part of the biggest event in history in Australia in my home country.”
After a quiet time in the ’90s, Newton-John talked to her accountant about “slowing down”. Soon after those discussions the momentum started again. “I thought, ‘It’s the year 2000, nothing much can happen in 2000 for me and I’ll just slow down’. Then I got invited to go and sing for the Pope and then I was invited to sing for (Bill) Clinton and it just kept going. And then it was the Olympics.”
Next year should prove just as interesting. Newton-John has just released her first live album One Woman’s Live Journey and celebrate her three decades in music with a box set of rarities and b-sides and a new duets album, rumored to include John Farnham and Savage Garden. There’s also a film Sordid Lives, out this year.
“It’s a really small part, but it’s a really fun part,” Newton-John says. “I play a country and western singer.”
Having celebrated her 52nd birthday last month, Newton-John says much of the credit for her career longevity belongs to her long-time collaborator, John Farrar.
“I feel as if he’s a partner in my career because he’s been there from the beginning,” she says. “He wrote Have You Never Been Mellow, Sam, the hit songs from Grease You’re the One That I Want and Hopelessly Devoted To You then he wrote Xanadu, Magic and Suddenly. “So we’re partners. He’s been an incredible part of my career;”
NEWTON-John also believes it’s the consistent calibre of these songs that has saved her from becoming tired and daggy. “I’ve always been really careful with words,” she says. “I think I’ve just gone with my own integrity and hopefully that was always in line with everyone else’s. But you can only go by your own. I don’t listen to songs and go, ‘Oh, I hope everyone else likes it’. I go by what I like.”
Even after 30 years and almost the same number of albums, Newton-John insists she never really needed a singing career.
“It never was the most important thing to me,” she says. “My life has always been more important. But it’s always been a big part of my life because I’ve been doing this since I was 15.”
“It is amazing because when I was 20-something, I used to look at other artists who had 10 albums and go, ‘Oh, my God, isn’t that amazing. I wonder if I ever will’. Suddenly I’m one of those who has all these albums. I’m just really lucky I’m still going and people still come to see me after all this time.”
Newton-John’s “amazing” career isn’t only measured in the number of albums. She’s also an icon to a generation of female performers. Singers from Mariah Carey to Kylie Minogue have expressed their adoration for this veteran.
“Really?” asks the original big-screen Sandy in reference to Ms Minogue. “I never heard that. That’s really nice. I’ve just been given her new album, I want to listen to it. I haven’t heard anything for a while but I think she’s done a wonderful job with her career. She’s a talented girl. That’s funny,” she muses.
Newton-John’s life has been full of unexpected kudos, but she’s never let it go to her head.
“I think my background has kept my feet on the ground,” she says. “When I was first touring I used to look at the audience and they’d be standing up and lighting candles and through my mind instead of just going with it and thinking, ‘Great!’ I thought, ‘tomorrow night it will be someone else’. “I never really got carried away with it all.”
One Woman’s Live Journey (Festival Mushroom Records) out now.