Olivia To Give WSU Concert
PULLMAN -Popular singer Olivia Newton-John appears in concert Tuesday night at 8 at the Washington State University Performing Arts Coliseum.
She is the first female vocalist to score three successive number one records on top pop charts, and has had seven gold records and two platinum awards in less than three years.
“Music is just in the Welsh blood,” says the daughter of a Welshman who agonized for years before choosing a life as a German professor, rather than as an opera singer. “And it was with me through my childhood.”
“My father had a collection of a thousand records, mostly classical, but he gave me Tennessee Ernie Ford records, too. My other musical influences growing up were Ray Charles, Joan Baez and Nina Simone.”
Born in England, she lived in Australia for 11 years from the time she was five.
Though singing began for Olivia in her early teens, worldwide prominence didn’t come until late 1973, when she won her first Grammy Award as Best Country Vocalist with the song “Let Me Be There.” Since then, awards and gold records have been a steady happening.
Singer-songwriter Paul Williams, who has written such pop classics as “We’ve Only Just Begun,” will also be on the program and Cotton, Lloyd & Christian will open the show.