Country music group the Chicks honored the late Olivia Newton-John on Saturday evening by performing a cover of “Hopelessly Devoted to You” from “Grease.”
While playing the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington, singer Natalie Maines paid tribute to the beloved Australian actor and pop musician, who died at age 73 last week after a long battle with breast cancer.
“We lost a worldwide sweetheart … Olivia Newton-John,” Maines told the crowd.
“I thought I was Olivia Newton-John from like [age] 4 until 12. And then I just wished I was Olivia Newton-John from then on. So what we worked up today at soundcheck [was an] Olivia Newton-John song. Feel free to sing along.”
The audience indeed joined Maines in belting the melodramatic lyrics to the classic ballad, famously sung by Newton-John’s Sandy Olsson in the 1978 movie-musical “Grease.” Over the last week, a number of entertainers have remembered Newton-John for her talent and kind spirit.
Among the many who saluted the Hollywood icon on social media were Dionne Warwick, George Takei, Marlee Matlin, Gabrielle Union, Antonio Banderas, Rod Stewart, Oprah Winfrey and John Travolta, who starred opposite Newton-John as Danny Zuko in “Grease.”
“My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better,” Travolta wrote on Instagram. “Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the first moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!”
Since receiving her first breast-cancer diagnosis in 1992, Newton-John had been vocal about her struggles with the disease, raised large sums of money for breast-cancer research and remained active in the breast-cancer community while continuing to release music.
“Once you’ve faced your greatest fears, life somehow doesn’t seem as threatening,” she told The Times in 1994.
