An interview with four–time Grammy award winner Olivia Newton John, during her recent visit to Sri Lanka.

By Shabnam Farook

Q: Olivia you’ve been touring a lot in the recent. What do you love about singing?

I love singing. I’ve been doing it for a long time, I’m still enjoying it. I’ll continue singing until I don’t enjoy it, or when the crowds don’t show up for my shows.

Q: What excites you most when touring?

Going to all these new places.  I’ve never been to Sri Lanka or to Bangkok, Hong Kong or Vietnam.

Q: Among your large repertoire of songs what is the song you love performing the most?

It’s hard to say, every night is different. All these songs are different to each other. They all have different energy and lyrics. I don’t think I have a favourite, I love each song for a particular reason. The Grease songs of course the crowd loves, and my country music which I’m surprised to find that people love, especially in Asia. And the ballads seem to go very well.

Q: Tell us about the Grease experience and what kind of impact did it have on your career?

It had no impact at all of course, hasn’t meant a thing for me. (Laughs) Retrospectively, it was a fun experience. We had no idea that it was going to be this big. If we knew that, we would have made lots of movies like that. Not many movies have lasted this long.

Q: What kind of chemistry do you and your Grease co-star John Travolta share on and off screen?

We have a great friendship. We have that experience of a lifetime we shared, which you cannot recreate. We both like each other a lot and that translates on screen.

Q: The songs in the movie are still popular what do you think makes these songs continue to thrive among crowds?

A good song is a good song, whether you sing it with an orchestra, with a guitar or A-Cappella. I think I was very lucky that it had some great songs. John Farrer wrote most of them for me.

(Pics by Manoj Ratnayake)