Reuters :
Singer Olivia Newton-John, who soared to the top of the world’s pop music charts in the 1970s and 1980s with such tunes as I honestly love you and Physical and starred in the hit movie musical Grease, died on Monday at the age of 73 at her home in Southern California.
The death of the British-born, Australian-raised performer was announced on her Instagram account, saying she ‘passed away peacefully’ at her ranch home ‘surrounded by family and friends.’
Newton-John, a four-time Grammy winner, had disclosed in 2017 that a recurrence of breast cancer had metastasized and spread to her lower back, forcing her to cancel performances. Twenty-five years earlier Newton-John had undergone a partial mastectomy, leading her to become an advocate for breast cancer research and other health issues and to establish a cancer treatment-research facility in Australia. The entertainer began performing as a child and became a global superstar after moving to the United States. She was blond, blue-eyed, and brimming with wholesomeness when she had her first hit in 1971 with If not for you – a Bob Dylan song that also had been recorded by George Harrison.
