Singer and Gay Icon, Olivia Newton-John, Has Died at 73 Years Old
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She made us all get “Physical” and delivered one of the finest performances in one of the worst movies ever, the camp roller skating musical Xanadu, and played the indelible Sandy opposite John Travolta in the classic blockbuster film adaptation of the musical Grease.
Australian actress, singer, and gay icon Olivia Newton John is dead at 73 years-old.
The cause was complications from her long battle with breast cancer.
Newton-John, the Australian singer whose breathy voice and wholesome beauty made her one of the biggest pop stars of the ’70s and charmed generations of viewers in the blockbuster movie Grease, died on Monday, according to a statement from her husband. She was 73.
“Dame Olivia Newton-John passed away peacefully at her Ranch in Southern California this morning, surrounded by family and friends. We ask that everyone please respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time,” her husband, John Easterling, wrote in a statement on the singer’s verified Instagram account. “Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer.”
The singer revealed in September 2018 that she was treating cancer at the base of her spine. It was her third cancer diagnosis, following bouts with breast cancer in the early ’90s and in 2017.
Thanks to a string of country and soft-rock hits, Newton-John was already a popular singer by the late 1970s. But her co-starring role opposite John Travolta in 1978’s Grease arguably the most popular movie musical of all time, lifted her to a new level of stardom.
Although she had little acting experience (and turned 29 during filming), Newton-John gave an indelible performance as Sandy, a sweet-natured Australian transfer student who romances Travolta’s alpha greaser Danny at a Southern California high school in the 1950s.
Their onscreen chemistry as mismatched lovebirds who undergo final-act makeovers to win each others’ hearts — she ditches her frilly dresses for heels, leather, spandex and a cigarette — anchored the movie and inspired repeat viewings by legions of fans.
“I don’t think anyone could have imagined a movie would go on almost 40 years and would still be popular and people would still be talking to me about it all the time and loving it,” Newton-John told CNN in 2017. “It’s just one of those movies. I’m very lucky to have been a part of it. It’s given so many people pleasure.”
Newton-John sang on three of the movie’s biggest hits: the duets “You’re The One That I Want” and “Summer Nights” with Travolta, and her swoony solo ballad, “Hopelessly Devoted To You.”
Born in Cambridge, England in 1948, Newton-John moved with her family to Melbourne, Australia, when she was five. After winning a talent contest on a TV show, Sing, Sing, Sing, as a teen she formed an all-girl group and began appearing on weekly pop music programs in Australia.
Newton-John recorded her first single in England in 1966 and scored a few international hits, but she remained largely unknown to US audiences until 1973, when “Let Be There” became a top-10 hit on both the adult contemporary and the country charts.
A series of No. 1 easy-listening hits followed, including “I Honestly Love You,” “Have You Never Been Mellow” and “Please Mr. Please.”
Then came Grease, which was 1978’s top-grossing movie and became an enduring cultural phenomenon.
The movie gave Newton-John an opportunity to change her squeaky-clean image. The cover of her next album, “Totally Hot,” featured the singer in black leather, while its songs had an edgier, more contemporary pop sound.
In 1981, she took her new, sexier persona a step further with “Physical,” a dance number with such suggestive lyrics as, “There’s nothing left to talk about unless it’s horizontally.”
Banned by several radio stations, it became her biggest hit, spending 10 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.
She also appeared in several more big-budget movies, including the musical fantasy Xanadu with Hollywood legend Gene Kelly in his final screen role. The film bombed, but its soundtrack sold well and spawned “Magic,” a No. 1 hit.
Over a lengthy career Newton-John won four Grammy Awards and sold more than 100 million albums.
“I’ve had many lives in music. I’ve had country when when I started, then I crossed over into pop,” she told CNN. “I had Xanadu and Grease, many songs in between. I feel very grateful. I have such a large repertoire to choose from.”
Although her career profile dimmed in her later years, Newton-John never stopped recording and performing. Among her highlights were guest appearances on Glee, a long-running “Summer Nights” residency at the Flamingo Las Vegas and a dance-club hit, “You Have to Believe,” recorded with daughter Chloe.
“I love to sing, it’s all I know how to do,” she told CNN in 2017. “That’s all I’ve ever done since I was 15, so it’s my life. I feel very grateful that I can still do it and people still come to see me.”
In terms of her legacy as a gay icon, Xanadu alone would have been more than enough. The panned roller-disco fantasia that nevertheless has gone onto become a quintessential cult classic. Seriously, how can you pull off a number like this (below) and not become a gay icon?
But ever the overachiever she went above and beyond with both the song and video for “Physical.”
Queerty:
Her first solo release post-Xanadu, Newton-John surprised her fans and shook up the charts with “Physical,” the pop-forward lead single from her 1981 album of the same name.
Originally intended for Rod Stewart and, at one point, offered to Tina Turner, the track represented a very intentional shift for the Aussie singer, allowing her to step into her power and own her sexuality. Of course, its lyrics feel a little PG these days (“There’s nothing left to talk about unless it’s horizontally”), but the cheeky suggestiveness was a major change for Newton-John. With a rollicking guitar solo and giddy synth accentuations, “Physical” was an immediate hit and has endured as her signature song.
And, speaking of endurance, how about that music video? Intended to temper the lyrics’ overt sexuality, the clip took Newton-John to a geometric gym setting where the only sort of “physical” activity she’d be getting into was some light aerobics.
A surprise comes at the video’s end: At a certain point, Newton-John steps off the workout floor and into the shower, and that’s when all the men suddenly get ripped. When she returns, she’s shocked by the results, but has trouble coaxing any of the insta-studs to be her doubles partner in tennis.
“Why is that?,” you might wonder. Well, it turns out, they’re gay! We see the men distracted by their own muscles before they grab one of their beefy workout classmates and head out the door, hand in hand.
It’s all pretty shocking to see in a video from the ’80s—so much so that MTV initially cut off the homoerotic ending before airing it on the network. Despite that, the clip for “Physical” made a lasting impression, becoming arguably one of the most iconic music videos of the era.
Since then, the song’s been covered time and time again (Kylie Minogue’s seductive version stands out as a favorite), was featured on Glee (Newton-John even made a cameo alongside Jane Lynch), and has been interpolated by more recent hits like Doja Cat and SZA’s “Kiss Me More” and, of course, Dua Lipa’s hit song of the same name.
Nearly 40 years on, “Physical” looms large in the culture thanks to its totally ’80s vibe and successful overhaul of a pop star’s image. But we’ll never forget that moment at the end of the video, when Newton-John gifted us with a gay-friendly twist that didn’t make us the butt of the joke.
Thank you, Dame Olivia Newton-John, for sharing your gifts with the world and long being an ally to the LGBT community. You’ll be missed.
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