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News August 17, 2022

Olivia Newton-John Nabs Posthumous Chart Record In U.S.

Senior Journalist, B2B
Olivia Newton-John Nabs Posthumous Chart Record In U.S.

Olivia Newton-John is the one that we want, new sales and streaming data reveals.

The late Australian pop star’s biggest hits surged in the United States as fans turned to her music in the days following her death, Aug. 8, following a decades-long battle with cancer. She was 73.

A dozen ONJ songs enter Billboard’s latest Digital Song Sales chart, dated Aug. 20, led by the Grease number “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” new at No. 5 with more than 5,000 downloads sold, the trade title reports.

Also, “Magic,” the lead single from the soundtrack to Xanadu, in which Newton-John starred, just misses out on a Top 10 berth, arriving at No. 11.


With 12 tracks on the Digital Song Sales survey, ONJ ties with Whitney Houston, following her 2012 death, for the most in a week among women.

Meanwhile, Billboard reports Olivia’s U.S. song sales for tracks on which she’s the lead artist blew up by 6,078% to 47,000, while official on-demand U.S. streams of her songs rose by 615% to 10.2 million.

The most popular ONJ song in the U.S. on streaming platforms was “You’re the One That I Want,” also from Grease, up 134% to 1.9 million on-demand plays; while “Hopelessly Devoted” was close behind with 1.8 million streams, up 328%.


It was a similar story on the ARIA Albums Chart, published last Friday (Aug. 12), which saw two ONJ sets bounce back into the Top 10 — Hopelessly Devoted: The Hits at No. 5 and the soundtrack to Grease at No. 8.

During her lifetime, the pop culture superstar snagged almost every possible award and honour.

She was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2002,; earned the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2019 for her contribution to music and charitable work; and was named a National Living Treasure of Australia by the National Trust of Australia.

In the United States, she landed five Hot 100 No. 1s, and a total of 15 Top 10s in the decade from 1974 to 1984. She also led the Billboard 200 albums chart on two occasions, with If You Love Me Let Me Know (from 1974) and Have You Never Been Mellow (1975).

She scooped the ARIA Award in 1999 for highest selling album with Highlights From The Main Event in collaboration with John Farnham. Career record sales worldwide tally more than 100 million.

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