Honesty Is The Most Important Thing In Life - Suosikki

Translation from Finnish:

Olivia has done it again! Reached an incredible peak, crowning her GREASE success. This time the magic word is XANADU, a film that was slammed by critics but loved by the audience. And it loves Olivia in particular!

The best proof of that are two of Olivia's songs XANADU and MAGIC, which are at the top of the world's charts.

SUOSIKKI met Olivia in London and had a long talk about her career, her future plans and the intricacies of her private life.

Superstardom has not driven Olivia crazy, what do you think of her sincere statement: The most important thing in life for me is honesty. Honesty towards myself and my audience!

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta are making a new movie soon. Now that Olivia has finished her Xanadu film and Travolta is once again triumphantly starring on the big screen as a big-city cowboy, these Grease stars want to be in the same movie.

We get along well together. The work is going well. And, above all, nine out of ten fan letters are demanding that we appear together. And what's more pleasant, when we want the same thing, Olivia says, looking us straight in the eye and smiling so charmingly that the reporter almost falls off his chair.

Olivia is in London on a PR-type world tour for her new Xanadu film. And Suosikki is there in a very select group.

Xanadu is a fantasy musical. It doesn't contain any message. It offers viewers the opportunity to forget all the worries of the world for a moment. Very escapist entertainment. Olivia says. The initial reviews in the US have not been very favorable for this very reason, we can say. Grease got much, much worse. But the audience loved it, Olivia consoles.

That's what really happened. Grease became the most popular musical in history, the most watched film of all time in its own genre. So now the producers are probably rubbing their hands as Olivia and John plan to make a new film.

I don't know why Grease became such a success. Partly because John and I, together, created some kind reaction. But mainly because the young people liked the music and could relate to the story. I don't know what or even what kind of film we're going to do with John now. We both read the scripts and we're in close collaboration, exchanging opinions on them, Olivia says when we try to press her about the next big project, a real star-studded big screen. Travolta and Olivia together again...

It doesn't necessarily have to be a musical. It can even be a comedy or a serious film. A serious role suits me now, now that I've gained more experience as an actor.

There's no rush. If it takes three years to find the right script like it did for my first film Xanadu, then go for it. I'm in no rush.

You can clearly see that Olivia has achieved what she wanted in her life. Her own peace, which her position as one of the world's biggest superstars with a multi-million dollar income grants her. She wouldn't have to work a day in her life again. But she still does it, at her own pace, when she feels like it.

Olivia currently has no other projects planned except for making her own LP. Xanadu is not her own album, but the soundtrack.

Although I consider it almost my own album. After all, I'm performing six songs on it, which is four fewer than what's usually on a regular album.

The reason Olivia hasn't released any of her own albums since Totally Hot and it's been well over two years since then is, according to her own words, producer John Farrar.

He's been working on his own solo album for so long that he hasn't even had time to think about my album.

Olivia couldn't think of any other producer. Interpreting compositions by Electric Light Orchestra, or ELO's Jeff Lynne, was new to her in connection with Xanadu. But Olivia has also made hit songs from these, as you can see if you follow the hit lists.

An exciting guy. And very special compositions, Olivia commented on Jeff Lynne.

Gene Kelly taught Olivia a lot while filming the dance scenes and of course she was absolutely thrilled to be in front of the cameras with a living legend, while co-star Michael Beck was an ordinary, very likeable guy, Olivia commented on the other name in Xanadu.

(Michael Beck's breakthrough in the US came with the movie Warriors. Finns didn't get to enjoy his leading role, because our country banned the movie in its entirety.) No romance, though. They are mostly inventions of the magazines. When you are a woman and still single like me, in the USA I am constantly being married to anyone in the columns of the magazines.

My meeting with Michael and the filming of the first scene left a very painful memory. In the scene, Olivia and Michael were roller skating, doing pirouettes and singing a duet. Olivia had been roller skating for a long time before this, but now luck was not there, and she fell badly, hitting the floor with the force of her feet. And then her tail bone broke.

Guess how painful that was, after that I always sat on a cushion. I've been afraid of roller skates ever since, and I've never worn them since Xanadu, Olivia says seriously, but sometimes she laughs so heartily that the interviewer completely forgets where he is, forgets the entire interview, and all the questions.

Luckily, Olivia's manager Roger Davies is there and just by his presence gets our conversation back on track. And unfortunately, he also comes to say that Olivia is now being taken to the BBC TV studios, to the recording of the Top of the Pops program.

But not before we had Olivia's comments about yet another person who is connected to herself and Xanadu. This is Cliff Richard, who sings the Xanadu duet with Olivia, although on the big screen his place has been taken by Michael Beck.

Michael is an actor, not a singer. We needed a singer and I knew from experience how well Cliff's and my voices go together. I thought he was the ideal person for this and I got my way.

We sang a lot together at the beginning of my career. So it was lovely to do Cliff a favour now and be able to thank him a little for those times in England at the end of the 60s, when I came there from Australia with a head full of big dreams, Olivia says.

Olivia was small and unknown at the time, a little star in her native Australia who, after winning a talent show, received a trip to England as a prize and she is still on this journey. Now, perhaps the most popular female superstar. Or, what other female artist, like Olivia, would have made a name for herself as both a singer and an actress, and who would simultaneously hold the top spots on both the US and English charts.

And she apparently hasn't changed much since the early days of her career. She's still small. And charming, straightforward, natural, so charming that you can fall in love with her picture alone.

You can only imagine what it's like to meet her in person. It's easy to get really confused and forget the questions. Especially when Olivia, a little earlier, when llpo Musto was taking pictures of us together, said that now the world probably thinks this is a romance - referring to the fact that she's constantly being married to every man she usually has affairs with.

It didn't help even though I pointed out that it would suit me. Olivia left. But luckily, you can meet and see her in Xanadu whenever you want. On a level of fantasy.

Text By Kikke Herlin, Ilpo Musto And Ucs, Photos