Grease was just the start - Muziek Parade

Translation from Dutch:

There's only one magic word for the coming months: XANADU. Of course, Olivia felt completely at home in the charts again with the title song from the film XANADU. But the big job: the film's release still had to happen.

Having a real hit record is truly heart warming, a beaming OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN told MP's MARC SPITS, hearing your own successful record on the radio is really fantastic. The interest in you is increasing enormously. You're asked for radio interviews and you have to be on TV again, preferably with your own show. I've now signed a series of contracts for hotel performances. I'm also going to do Grease on Broadway. I'm really enjoying that, but... film is really my favorite thing to do.

Andy Gibb is sweet... but...I've been lucky enough to work with the right people, says OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, you can have qualities as an artist, but if you're guided by the wrong people, everything goes wrong. I see that every day in Hollywood. Hundreds of perfectly good actors and actresses go completely to the dogs because they're surrounded by so-called managers and agents who will take them to the top. I'm not saying that those managers deliberately let those up-and-coming stars drown, certainly not, but somehow such a manager takes the wrong path. And months later, with their illusions gone, their savings gone, such a starlet returns home, the dream not having come true. That's heartbreaking, don't you think?

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN has a huge talent, of course, she can dance, she can sing, she can act and OLIVIA is an exceptionally intelligent girl. A unique combination, really: talented, clever and exceptionally beautiful. And yet people thought that after Grease it was over for her too. Or not?

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: The success of Grease will, of course, never be repeated. Millions and millions of people saw JOHN and me, and everyone was wildly enthusiastic. Later, Grease will go down in history as the most unique show business event of the 1970s. What publicity that film brought us all. No one can resist that. Not even me. I made a tremendous amount of money from that film, and on the advice of good friends, I withdrew from the industry for a while. There you go again: they gave me good advice. My friends could have just as easily said: keep making films, because as popular as you are, they didn't. I'm grateful for that.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN retreated to her ranch for a while, took care of the horses, and otherwise didn't let herself be distracted.

Gossip magazines were full of stories about lost loves, illnesses, and all that other good stuff. I don't read that stuff. I do keep track of my appearance in the newspapers, because that's important, but I absolutely can't read what's written about me; it would make me sick.

And the ANDY GIBB story is also false? OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN, with those big, disarming marbles of eyes: It's an open secret that ANDY is very fond of me and I like him very much too, otherwise I wouldn't have put him on the show, would I? But I think ANDY and I should remain good friends and definitely not get married. ANDY is very sweet but I don't think he knows what he wants yet. He already has a failed marriage behind him - he likes to go out with MARIE OSMOND and SUSAN GEORGE to show that he's made it. I know he really loves me, but let ANDY calm down for a while first, when he's found some peace, maybe who knows what beautiful things ... can still grow between us.

XANADU

After that purposeful break, OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN got the chance to play the lead role in the film XANADU. A wonderful love story from Universal City Studios. The music in the film is top-notch.

The co-stars are all allure stars, among whom OLIVA feels like a free spirit: GENE KELLY, an old hand in the industry, MICHAEL BECK, whom we still remember from The Warriors. And the music is by JEFF LYNN, the driving force behind ELO.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN plays KIRA in the film, one of the nine daughters of ZEUS. They all come to Earth to turn dreams into reality. There is a lot of dancing in the film, from jitterbug to tap dancing. There are again beautiful costumes. And of course, the musical contributions of JOHN FARRAR cannot be forgotten.

It already looks like XANADU is going to be a very big film and that may come as a surprise considering that nobody knows what artistic cannons have been brought to bear.

Note - The full page poster is not from this particular Muziek Parade issue - unknown date.