Superstar Olivia still feels like a country girl
Translation from German:
In a skin-tight black leotard, with golden hair sparkling in the spotlight and a seductive glance over her bare shoulder — this is how Olivia Newton-John recently posed for a poster. And with this poster, the “country girl,” as she likes to call herself, entered the fast-moving world of screen and silver beauties, who light up like shooting stars in America’s show firmament and fade just as quickly.
This is the world of a Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd, or Bo Derek. “For me, it represents a new dimension,” says Olivia Newton-John. “I try things today that I wouldn’t have dared to do before. I’ve become more adventurous.”
The change came with the musical film “Grease,” when she sang alongside John Travolta and swung her hips and legs with him in disco fever. But her newfound glory as a screen star only truly shone when she filmed “Xanadu” with the grand master of film musicals, Gene Kelly.
Those who have already seen this film, which will premiere soon, are praising the 31-year-old singer highly: “It has become clear that Olivia can not only sing and dance. She also has acting talent.” Olivia cannot imagine a better compliment. Because she has always longed for three things: singing, filming and a riding stable.
These were longings, however, not to her strict father’s taste. When he became dean of a college in Melbourne and the family moved from England to Australia, a strictly conservative upbringing began for the then five-year-old Olivia.
Her father envisioned an academic education for his daughter — after all, Olivia’s grandfather was none other than the world-famous nuclear physicist and Nobel Prize winner Max Born. So it must have been a painful disappointment for her father when, at the age of 16, she rebelled against family tradition, left school, returned to London to seek her fortune in the local music scene, and shortly thereafter she was engaged to Bruce Welch, a British rock singer from the group “Shadows.”
However, she couldn’t afford her own horses until she came to Los Angeles with her manager and new partner, Lee Kramer, and was transformed by the Hollywood show machine into a star of American country music.
In the seven years she has now lived in the USA, Olivia Newton-John has achieved astonishing things: five platinum albums, four gold LPs, and shares worth twelve million dollars from recording and concert contracts.
Her highest honor, however, was the Order of the British Empire, which the Queen awarded her at Buckingham Palace. “I felt like Alice in Wonderland,” the artist recalls of the proud moment.
She has since created her own wonderland: a ranch in the mountains of Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There she keeps seven horses and a pack of eight dogs. It is her very private little world in which she loves alone.
She feels so strongly drawn to her own domain that she charters a private jet whenever she’s engaged in Las Vegas. This allows her to be with her animals during the day and on stage in good time in the evening.
he brought a new style of show to the gambling capital of Las Vegas when she performed hits from “Grease” and, like in the film musical with John Travolta, put on lively “disco dances” on the stage.
What she showed there was expanded on television into several Olivia Newton-John specials. These are glamorous shows with many famous guests, one of which will be shown on Sunday on ZDF.
Then it will become clear whether the German audience wants to see the same thing as the American viewers – a pretty young woman who, at 31, still looks like a teenager, sings about love and romance, and radiates a fresh rural idyll with blushing cheeks and a cheerful smile.
Her record with Andy Gibb (a member of the well-known pop group Bee Gees), “Rest Your Love on Me,” became the most popular love duet in the States since Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond topped the charts with “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.”
But anyone who believes that Olivia Newton-John has more than just a job in common with her singing and dancing partners is mistaken.
Since she separated from her partner, Lee Kramer, after five years she’s remained single — and that’s how it’s going to stay for now. “If I ever get married, I have to be absolutely sure. I’m just a simple and perhaps old-fashioned country girl at heart.”
By Edmund Brettschneider
The show “Olivia Newton-John”, on Sunday, 8 June, 3:25 p.m.