Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John, AO, OBE is an English-Australian singer, songwriter and actress. Newton-John was born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, to a Welsh father, Brinley “Bryn” Newton-John, and a Berlin-born mother, Irene Helene (née Born), the eldest child of the Nobel Prize-winning atomic physicist Max Born.

Newton-John released her first solo album, If Not For You (No. 158 Pop), in 1971. The title track, written by Bob Dylan and previously recorded by former Beatle George Harrison for his 1970 album All Things Must Pass, was her first international hit (No. 25 Pop, No. 1 Adult Contemporary (“AC”)). In 1979, Olivia Newton-John received the Officer of the Order of the British Empire medal from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in London.

She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five number-one and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles, and two number-one Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles (including two platinum) and fourteen of her albums (including two platinum and four double platinum) have been certified gold by the RIAA. She has sold an estimated 100 million records, making her one of the world’s best-selling music artists of all time. She starred in Grease, which featured one of the most successful soundtracks in Hollywood history.