Girls Who've Made It
Issue 47
Poor Olivia says she can’t remember ever receiving a Valentine card as a girl however, she doesn’t have to worry now, ‘cos her many adoring fans send her dozens!
As a girl singer, you can’t get much more successful than Olivia Newton-John, recently named top female country artist (which she’s over-the-moon about!) but if she’d had her own way she would have spent her time crooning to animals rather than humans!
Animal Crackers!
“I wanted desperately to be a vet,” she told us. “But it never happened because you have to be very good at school and I never was. I used to swot the night before exams and just scrape through Because we lived in the University grounds my father’s a professor - I could never have any pets. I was a very active member of the RSPCA always bringing home stray dogs and cats..
“I never planned to be a singer, it just happened, and even when it did I was always more interested in my personal life and boyfriends.”
First Public Appearance
All the same, Olivia was just fourteen when she started to sing trad jazz with three other girls back home in Australia. “We stood up in clubs a few times and got pennies thrown at us. Then I started singing folk songs on my own and got a chance on a Melbourne television programme like “New Faces”.
After winning another television talent contest, she began to be offered appearances in other shows.
“As I was still at school and only fourteen it had to be limited. I left as soon as I was fifteen - I should have stayed on another year but the teacher said I’d never get through if I was involved in singing. Everyone had been hoping I’d go to University, but that was a joke!
Worked Hard
“The TV company offered me a year’s contract. My boyfriend was also on the show and we did two a day, with only an hour’s rehearsal. “Perhaps I missed out on some things most kids have, fewer outings, less dating, but that’s all.”
When she was seventeen, Olivia made up her mind to try her luck in Britain. “I was terribly homesick at first. I hated England for a long time. Now I love it.”
Two years after joining a group called “Tomorrow” which never really happened, Olivia was sitting around doing nothing when her career took a huge leap. She was asked to make a duet record with Cliff Richard! From that followed appearances on his TV shows, her own hit singles and now the “Eurovision Song Contest”.
You’d think that her success would have made her super confident, but Olivia confessed to us that there are times when she still gets all tensed up. “I’m fairly easy-going about life but I do get very nervous before a show. I’m edgy, a bit squeamish, can’t eat and it builds up to the moment I go on.”
Tips For The Top
Being a success herself. Olivia often gets asked for advice by girl singers just starting out. Olivia has this to say: “The first thing is to find someone who’s interested in you.” You need to make a tape, get some good photographs and take them round to agencies.
“Of course appearance is important. I’m not a terribly glamorous dresser but I went through a stage of thinking I had to have more and more. I’m starting to calm down now.”
The Art Of Looking Un-Made-Up
“You have to wear a certain amount of make-up on television, a base and slightly more exaggerated eyes than in the daytime, but personally I like to wear as little as possible. I’d hate to look made up. though there is an art in making yourself up to look un-made-up.”
What It’s All About
“Hit records are a worry. You can only sit and hope and naturally you get upset if one doesn’t make it. Then you try again, which is what it’s all about really.
“The best thing about it is being able to give pleasure to other people. If someone comes up and says they enjoyed your last television show, or their grandmother’s bought your latest record, that’s when it’s really good.”