When Olivia Newton-John came onto the music scene, she was a little-known English and Australian artist who was about to make a big splash. As a singer, dancer, and actress, Olivia was well-prepared for the superstardom that was about to be hers when she starred in the 1978 musical film Grease, whose soundtrack is one of the top-selling soundtracks in history. A single from that soundtrack has been one of the best-selling singles in history: “You’re the One That I Want.” Olivia Newton-John has done well for herself in the years following Grease. She has won four Grammy Awards and has enjoyed five number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and ten more top-ten singles.
Two of Olivia’s albums have made it to the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart. What’s more, 11 of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified Gold by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). Out of those albums, two of her singles went Platinum and two of her albums went Platinum. Four of her albums achieved 2X Platinum certification. In terms of sales, Olivia Newton-John has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, which makes her one of the world’s top-selling recording artists of all time. What makes all of this even more amazing is that Olivia’s family barely escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany.
Olivia was born in 1948, just a few years after World War II ended. However, just as the war was heating up, Olivia’s grandparents were still in Nazi Germany. Her grandfather, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born, made the decision to flee Germany with his family and take them to England. Olivia’s dad played a huge role in World War II as well. As an M15 officer on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park, Brinley Newton-John took Rudolf Hess into custody during the war.
YouTube
When Olivia was six years old, her parents emigrated with her to Melbourne, Australia, where her father worked as a professor of the German language at the University of Melbourne. In the video below, watch Olivia Newton-John sing her signature song. Knowing her story makes us appreciate her talent even more.