Everyone's Kid Sister
By Ian Hayson, Journal Reporter
She sipped 7-Up, spoke with sweet tooth (as opposed to forked tongue), smiled like a cherub and glowed like an angel.
With that kind of build-up, it would be easy to think of Olivia Newton-John as a ringer for a convent choir instead of an international singing megastar.
But it’s difficult to think of her being caught up in the machinery of shallow pop promotion. She’s nice, ordinary, pretty, unpretentious and seemingly unsullied by the glitter world she now inhabits.
She reminds you of your kid sister, only she’s got rosy red, healthy cheeks instead of acne. She’s just the right side of sugar-syrup, in the right place at the right time.
Monday, Olivia took time off between her grandstand shows at the Ex to receive a case full of gold and platinum discs for record Canadian album sales, and to answer some questions from apparently hardened reporters and disc jockeys at the Sky-line Hotel.
She fielded the cynics with aplomb, giving straight answers to distorted questions. And she kept on smiling and looking cherubic and ordinary.
She was asked how she felt about bad reviews (of which she received a couple in Ottawa) and she simply replied she didn’t mind them “as long as they’re constructive. I listen to them but I don’t like it when people go to my shows with preconceived notions”.
“I want them to review the show as they see it, not to come gunning after me.”
How did she like giving grandstand shows? Weren’t they impersonal, wasn’t her opening performance at Lansdowne too distant?
“No, but it was cold,” said Olivia. (The weather, not the reception).
“It’s not really any different from giving any other show. You’ve got to do it and you’ve got to have confidence to go out there. “Sure, you can’t speak to the people in the front row because you’re 500 yards away from the audience, but it’s another kind of show. I enjoyed myself.”
So she was asked about her music. Asked to define it, dissect it, philosophize upon it and give its sociological implications.
“I just sing as I sing,” said Olivia. “I’m not a belter. I like to sing ballads, I like to sing pop. And I like country music. But I’m not in any particular bag. If I like the tune, the lyrics and the sound, then I like the song.” She admits to being guided by her producers and manager “because they know about that kind of thing”.
“But I’ve never been very aware of the fundamental difference between country and pop. My last record (Please Mister Please) was touted as a country song but it was written by two English guys”.
“But I like all music. I just hope I can go on singing in my own way and getting better all the time.”
Olivia, who still has a heavy Australian accent mixed-up with some ersatz London cockney, spoke at length about her rise to success via a talent show in Australia, to TV in England and to a Grammy award as best female country vocalist in the U.S.
Her home now, she says, is California, her life “just fantastic …yes, I’ve been lucky, and I’m enjoying every minute. My music is a challenge to me. I just hope I can go on getting better.”
She seems to have managed to stay herself. The well-oiled promotion people whirl around her slickly and cleverly, while she sits simply in the middle looking rather bemused about the whole thing.