As Grease celebrates its 40th anniversary, Olivia Newton-John reflects on her career and the power of positivity amid her ongoing cancer battle
Determined to do it her way, she walked out of their sessions in 1962 – and within four years had recorded her first single. “I wouldn’t sing anything I hated. I [had] to like it, or I wouldn’t sing it,” she recounted later. And it paid off. Today, Newton-John has sold more than 100 million records and starred in one of the most successful film musicals of all time, Grease, which is celebrating its 40th birthday this year.
Newton-John was born on September 26, 1948 in Cambridge, England, the youngest of three children. The family emigrated to Australia when she was five, when her father, Brinley, or “Bryn”, was appointed dean of the University of Melbourne’s Ormond College. Given her family pedigree, it seemed inevitable that she would be wise beyond her years from a young age. Her grandfather was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose best friend was Albert Einstein; her father was a Second World War Enigma code breaker. But it was clear early on that her aptitude was for singing, not science – at 15 months old, she could recognise musical notes and imitate them; by two, she was pitch perfect.
This story is from the August 2018 edition of Marie Claire Australia.
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This story is from the August 2018 edition of Marie Claire Australia.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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