Delta Goodrem has released the first track from her upcoming miniseries where she’ll play Olivia Newton-John.
Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You airs soon an Channel Seven, and the accompanying soundtrack album will see Delta performing many of Olivia’s greatest hits.
She’s also teamed up with Olivia to record a version of Olivia’s song, Love is a Gift. The tune is the first single released from the project.
The song originally appeared on Olivia’s 2004 album Back with Heart. Announcing the new recording Olivia said the tune took on new meaning when re-recording it with Delta.
“When we wrote ‘Love Is A Gift’, we wrote it as a love song. Now, when [Delta and I] sing it, it’s about friendship and love between friends. And so it still has the same meaning; it’s just a different time for the song.” Olivia said.
Delta said she was pleased to be able to record a song that showed the long friendship between her and the woman she’ll be portraying on screen.
“Having Olivia as a friend for all these years has been such an incredible gift. From a young age, she was an artist I admired and looked up to,” Delta said. “I love the sentiment of this song – the lyrics just hit me and the simplicity of the message saying love is a gift.”
Love is a Gift, is one of two duets Olivia and Delta have recorded. They also get together for a rendition of country tune Let Me Be There.
On the soundtrack Delta performs many of Olivia’s hit songs including I Honestly Love You, Physical, Xanadu, Magic and Hopelessly Devoted to You, plus she teams up with Dan Sultan for You’re The One That I Want.
Delta shared in a recent interview that Olivia had given her blessing for her to take part in the mini-series will document her life.
Olivia however told Australian Women’s Weekly that she was “horrified” when she first found out about the plans to put her life on screen.
“I probably won’t watch it. When they told me they were doing it, I was horrified,” Olivia said.
The series follows on from successful projects that told the stories of INXS and Molly Meldrum. The cast also includes Kate Jenkinson as Newton-John’s friend and former singing partner Pat Carroll, Richard Brancatisano as ex-husband Matt Lattanzi, while Gyton Grantley will play manager Roger Davies.
OIP Staff
