At the BBC

A special tribute to the much-loved star, who died in August 2022 at the age of 73 after a music career spanning over five decades and years spent raising awareness of breast cancer.

It was the success of Grease that turned Olivia into an international sensation, but she was already familiar to BBC audiences thanks to appearances like many of those captured in this collection. These include her own TV specials, guest appearances on some of the biggest entertainment shows of the day, and the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, where Olivia represented the United Kingdom, going into battle with eventual winners Abba.

The songs featured here were often even bigger successes in America, thanks to Olivia's popularity on the US country music charts, which then crossed over to the mainstream and ultimately continued post-Grease, with classics like Physical and Xanadu helping to define the early 1980s.