In the hours after news broke on Saturday about the death of singer Judith Durham, our Europe correspondent Rob Harris – who has a rich understanding of Australian culture – sent me a prescient WhatsApp message as we digested the significance of her loss.
Rob’s theory was that in terms of female singers who changed the world, there are only five true Australian success stories: Dame Nellie Melba, Dame Joan Sutherland, Durham, Olivia Newton-John and Kylie Minogue.
As Neil McMahon wrote in the Herald the next day, it took tragedy for Durham to realize just how much Australia and the world loved her.
As she lay in hospital in 1990 after a car accident that had claimed the life of another driver, the nation was keeping vigil, willing her back to good health. “That was a very big turning point for me,” she recalled years later. “People’s goodwill towards you can enlighten you, your sense of being appreciated.”
As we mourned Durham, we were not to know that the brilliant light that was Newton-John’s life was days away from being extinguished. Her battle with cancer had been very public, but her death in California at the age of just 73 felt like a real punch in the gut. My friends and colleagues describe feeling physically sick at the news and even shedding a tear.
I was one of them. Newton-John’s warmth, generosity and positive energy was inspiring, and her work de ella in raising awareness of breast cancer has undoubtedly saved lives. She even once described her cancer as “a gift” because her diagnosis gave her purpose and intention and taught her a lot about compassion.
Olivia Newton-John, pictured in 1976, took the world by storm.Credit:Getty
Under the direction of culture news editor Osman Faruqi, the herald newsroom treated the loss of Newton-John with great skill. One of the best contributions came from culture editor-at-large Michael Idato, who has a unique ability to capture the significance of big moments in Australian life.
In a career spanning six decades, Olivia Newton-John was a woman for all seasons: singer and songwriter, actor, activist, mother and health advocate. Searching her life de ella for a single snapshot to frame, we turn easily to Sandy Olsson, the Australian schoolgirl who romantically upended the all-American Rydell High School in the film grease.
To generations of fans, it was the capstone of her career, where everyone who saw her hope became helplessly devoted. It reflects the many ways people related to her de ella, and now grieve for her. Olivia was a sister, a best friend, a secret crush and, for one glittering moment in Hollywood history, the new girl at school. As Rydell’s cheer queen Patty Simcox would have said, wasn’t she the most?