Indomitable Olivia Newton-John has been
through a lot of tough times, but music
has been her salvation
December 22, 2007
RICHARD OUZOUNIAN
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST
Yes, she's been mellow, but she's also seen the dark side of the moon. And that's why Olivia Newton-John is the perfect person with whom to spend some time at Christmas.
The 59-year-old singer, who broke into superstardom singing "I Honestly Love You," has had a career and a personal life full of ups and downs. Yet she's managed to balance them out into a sunny sound that has delighted fans for well over 30 years.
Her current project, appropriately enough, is a seasonal album called Christmas Wish, produced by Canadian singer-songwriter Amy Sky.
It's a pleasing mixture of traditional favourites and new tunes, with guest artists like Jann Arden, Jon Secada and Barry Manilow coming along for the seasonal sleigh-ride.
The older songs strike a particular chord for Newton-John because they remind her of the last happy memories of her childhood in Australia.
"My parents divorced when I was 10," she recalls over the phone from her home in Australia, "and that was an incredibly difficult thing for me to accept.
"But before that happened, we had a few Christmases together that I will cherish forever."
That unique voice of hers, all dappled sunlight and Down Under twang, takes on an even softer note as she recalls those times.
"There were several years we enjoyed together before our family was split apart, and it's those memories I cling to.
"On Christmas Eve, my Mom would make German cookies and cakes and then we'd sing around the piano. There were live candles on the tree and my dad would lead us singing hymns like `Silent Night' and `Away in a Manger.'" (Both songs appear on the new album.)
But soon that time was gone and Newton-John started on her path to stardom, which led her to Los Angeles in the late 1970s, which was a considerably different place to celebrate Christmas. Still, she found a way.
"Spending the holidays in Hollywood is the strangest thing," she laughs, "but you find different things to cling to. The Santa Ana winds blowing. Taking care of my horses in the barn at night. Something very biblical about all that, wasn't it?"
But then the world changed, and the wonderful thing about Newton-John is that she treats the bad times with the same sensitivity and care that she treats the good.
"There was one Christmas that most people would rather have forgotten, I suppose," she says with her lilting calm.
"It was 1992 and my father had died of cancer the very day that I was diagnosed with mine."
How did she deal with that year? "I'd be lying if I said it was a celebration," she admits, "but you get together with the people you're close to and you sing the songs that renew you and somehow, it can be a healing time."
And although Newton-John triumphed over her breast cancer, becoming one of the major spokespersons for the disease around the world, she calmly admits life – as you grow older – is a process of loss after loss.
"Each Christmas you spend without someone you cared for – a father, a mother, a lover, a friend – is an unusually hard time. But I've always found that music has given me strength. And that's what I hope this album will give people as well."
It marks her second collaboration with award-winning Canadian musician Sky. Newton-John concedes they're the perfect team.
"Amy is a big-picture person and I'm quite a detail freak, so between us we help create the best package possible."
Newton-John's own personal life has continued to offer its share of testing moments.
In 2005, her long-time companion, Patrick McDermott, vanished following a fishing trip on the California coast.
Newton-John was in Australia at the time of his disappearance and has never been implicated in it, but a series of tabloid accusations about his past have enveloped the experience in a negative cloud she prefers not to discuss.
And, closer to home, she's had to deal with this year's headlines, which revealed her daughter is suffering from anorexia.
But through it all, this calm, golden woman remains seemingly impervious to the blows fate has dealt her.
"My life is about healing at the moment," she affirms, "healing other people rather than myself. I'm building a wellness centre in Australia where you've got to treat the body, the mind and the spirit in equal proportions.
"And yes, I believe music is the most healing medium there is. I'm blessed I have been given this gift," she says.
Lest you think Newton-John is all work and no play, there's her trip to Manhattan last summer where she was a cherished opening-night guest at the Broadway musical version of her 1980 camp-disaster film, Xanadu.
"Omigosh!" she exclaims with a whoosh of laughter. "It was fantastic. It was so fun, it was so very clever."
With the wisdom of hindsight, she admits now that, "at the time, we all stupidly took it all so seriously. I mean, I was acting opposite Gene Kelly. I had to believe in it!
"I cringed at the dialogue even then, but I always loved the music and the best part of the Broadway show is that it lets us laugh at the dialogue and still love the music."
As another Christmas comes around, one asks the resilient Newton-John what she wishes for. Her answer is immediate.
"Good health. Because without that, nothing else matters."
Getting personal with Olivia Newton-John
1. What was your first job?
When I was 15, I was on an Australian kids TV show called The Tarax Happy Show playing a character called Lovely Livvy, wearing a tartan jacket and a tartan hat.
2. If you weren't a singer or actor, what would you be doing?
No question. I'd be working with animals, helping take care of them in some way. I love them.
3. What's on your iPod?
A lot of golden oldies as well as New Age-y relaxing things. And a guy named Jonathan Butler from South Africa.
4. What's the last good movie
you saw?
I saw that new film Death at a Funeral and I found it very, very funny. It's the rare movie that makes me laugh.
5. What TV show must you
watch every week?
House is my favourite now. I love Hugh Laurie. I used to be a big fan of Six Feet Under as well.
- Richard Ouzounian
The essentials:
1948
Born June 26 in Cambridge, England. Her mother was the daughter of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and her father was the British officer who took Rudolf Hess into custody.
1954
Moved to Australia with her parents and two siblings.
1962
Began singing with an all-girl band, Sol Four, and appeared on Australian television as children's host Lovely Livvy.
1973
Had her first success as a pop singer with Let Me Be There.
1978
Shot to super-stardom as Sandy in the film version of the Broadway musical hit, Grease.
1980
Starred opposite Gene Kelly in Xanadu, but this roller-disco flop killed her film career in its tracks.
1981
Bounced back as a recording artist with the album Physical.
1992
After a struggle with breast cancer, continued as a successful recording and concert artist.
1998
Back With a Heart, produced by David Foster, sent her to the top of the country charts.
2006
She was named an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for "service to the entertainment industry as a singer and actor, and to the community through organizations supporting breast cancer treatment, education, training and research, and the environment."