ROCKY MOUNTAIN

Colorado - 1975: Olivia Newton-John, on horseback, appearing in the ABC tv special 'Rocky Mountain Christmas'.

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DAME OLIVIA: HOPELESSLY DEVOTED TO UK

Our Livvy named a dame in UK New Year’s Honours list
The Sunday Mail (Queensland)
29 Dec 2019
RICHARD FERGUSON

JUST call her Dame Olivia. The UK is hopelessly devoted to Australian film and music legend Olivia Newton-John, with the Grease star named a dame in the UK New Year’s Honours list.

The 71-year-old has been made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to entertainment and charity. With five US No. 1 singles and some of the most successful films of all time under her belt, Dame Olivia joins a list of singers, directors and sports stars included on the list.

“I am extremely excited, honoured and grateful beyond words to be included with such an esteemed group of women who have received this distinguished award before me,” she said.
“As a girl born in Cambridge, I am very proud of my British ancestry, and so appreciative to be recognised in this way by the United Kingdom.”

Dame Olivia was born in England in 1948 before her family moved to Melbourne in 1954.

She started singing on Australian television when she was 14, and it wasn’t long before she took the US and UK by storm with hits like I Honestly Love You. Dame Olivia has since sold 100 million singles worldwide. She also represented Britain in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.
But her worldwide fame was cemented with the hit film Grease in 1978, playing the iconic role of Sandy opposite John Travolta.
Dame Olivia’s career rose and rose – with some bumps in the road, such as the divisive film Xanadu – but she has remained a staple of pop culture.

Most recently she had a recurring role in the global hit TV show Glee.
Last week Dame Olivia reunited with Travolta for a Grease sing-a-long in Florida. She even wore one of her costumes from the film for the first time in 41 years.

In recent years she has been beset by multiple fights with cancer, at one point having to dispel online rumours of her death.
She has privately battled breast cancer since 1992, and in 2013 announced that the cancer had returned.
She has poured her attention into the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre in an effort to help others by finding a cure for the disease that has plagued her for several decades.

She is also an advocate of cannabis oil to help ease the suffering of cancer patients.
Dame Olivia’s was the top name on a list that also honoured top British film directors and members of England’s cricket team.

Cricketers Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan have been made an OBE and CBE respectively, while Skyfall director Sam Mendes and 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen have both been named knights.

Sir Elton John – who is on his final tour of Australia – has had his knighthood upgraded to a Companion of Honour, making him one of only 65 living recipients of the award.


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YOU'RE THE GONG THAT I WANT

The Sunday Times
29 Dec 2019


IT is more than 40 years since she sang You’re The One That I Want with John Travolta in the hit film musical Grease.

Now Olivia Newton-John has been recognised in the UK’s New Year’s Honours by being made a dame.
The 71-year-old heads a list of showbusiness figures to be honoured by the Queen that includes filmmakers Sam Mendes and Steve McQueen, Queen drummer Roger Taylor and singer Billy Ocean.

Elton John has been appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour — an elite group of Britain’s most notable figures from the arts, science and politics. Though already knighted by the Queen in 1998, the special award in the New Year Honours list marks an upgrade for the superstar to mark his services to music and charity.

Speaking about her award for services to charity and entertainment, Dame Olivia said she was “grateful beyond words”.
The singer, who was born in Cambridge but has spent most of her life in Australia, said the honour had filled her with pride in her
British roots.

“I am extremely excited, honoured and grateful beyond words to be included with such an esteemed group of women who have received this distinguished award before me,” she said.

“I am very proud of my British ancestry and so appreciative to be recognised in this way.”

Dame Olivia, the granddaughter of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, moved to Australia when she was six after her father Wilfred, a former MI5 officer who worked on the Enigma project, became a professor at the University of Melbourne.

She rose to fame as a singer in the 70s, launching her career in the UK and representing Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest. She had three UK No 1 singles and sold more than 100 million albums. But the pinnacle of her career came in 1978 when she starred as Sandy opposite Travolta in Grease, one of the most successful films ever. Dame Olivia has dedicated much of her life to cancer awareness — she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, resulting in a partial mastectomy and chemotherapy.

The illness returned in 2013, when she underwent a second round of treatment, and in 2017.