Tuesday 9 August 2022 03:31 AM How 'Lovely Lizzy' charmed Australia: Olivia Newton-John 'Miss Goody Two Shoes' ... trends now
Olivia Newton-John was simply a softly spoken Melbourne teenager until she made an appearance on a TV talent show that charmed Australia and set her on a path to showbiz superstardom.
The late Grease star - who died on Monday at home in Southern California, age 73 - was born in the UK and moved to Melbourne with her parents and siblings when she was six-years-old, in 1954.
With a strong academic and legal history in her family - in mathematics, physics and the judiciary - a career in music and acting was an unlikely path, but she was determined to make it.
Newton-John got her first break at just 15-years-old, winning the Sitmar Talent Quest on Channel Seven's popular Sing Sing Sing show, hosted by Australian rock icon Johnny O'Keefe, in April 1964.
Olivia Newton-John is pictured performing Everything's Coming Up Roses on Sing Sing Sing, broadcast on April 19, 1964
Newton-John performed the songs Anyone Who Had A Heart and Everything's Coming Up Roses, winning the top prize of a trip to the UK.
With a voice Australia's National Film and Sound Archive described as 'pure and powerful', Newton-John was in demand and appearances on 7's Sunnyside Up, ABC's Teen Scene and a return to Sing Sing Sing followed.
Billed as 'Lovely Livvy', she filled in as hostess on Seven's Happy Show over the summer of 1964–65 and then - against her Cambridge University-educated father Bryn's wishes - Newton-John left school to follow her dream.
She appeared in the children's movie Funny Things Happen Down Under, followed by the first of many appearances on ATV-0's (later Channel 10) pop music program GO!!
Newton-John also signed a contract with Seven to appear on daytime variety show Time For Terry.
These productions also featured her boyfriend of the time, singer and actor Ian 'Turps' Turpie.
Her rush to success continued in May 1965, when Newton-John was the opening act on an episode of Boomeride, a new live music show on Channel Nine.
Given her experience over the previous 12 months, she already had a confidence seemingly beyond her years.
Olivia Newton-John is pictured singing When I Grow Up, which featured risque lyrics, on Boomeride in 1965
This was reflected in the risque song she was given to sing, with lyrics saying that though she was '16 now ... One of these days, when I grow up, I'm gonna make love to you'.
In early 1966, accompanied by her mother, Irene, Newton-John finally used her Sing Sing Sing prize, travelling by ship to England.
The unbridled early success she had achieved in Australia was not immediately replicated in the UK.
Her debut single, Till You Say You'll be
