It was a Thursday evening like no other. Pure magic was what it turned out to be. Colombo’s ‘oldies’ lovers had a musical indulgence of their lifetime as the phenomenal Olivia Newton-John (ONJ) bowled them over with a performance that left the audience screaming breathlessly for an encore.
The evening began with ‘The De Lanerolle Brothers’ who set the mood right with classics like ‘Love me with your heart’, ‘Amarillo’ by Tony Christie and ‘Spanish Eyes’ by Engelbert Humperdinck.
The audience in their eagerness to see the music legend perform, didn’t seem to mind the long pause between the opening act and ONJ’s performance, and were quick to greet the vivacious star with a round of generous applause as she walked on stage.
From that moment on, the crowd seemed to fall into a trance as ONJ, who brought on her best serenaded, grooved and rocked the house with a cocktail of good music including audience favourites like ‘Zanadu’, ‘Magic’ and ‘Suddenly’.
Switching gears, she mellowed it down with round of good old country music, with songs like ‘If not for you’, ‘Banks of Ohio’, the Bob Dylan cover ‘Let me be there’, ‘Jolene’ and the memorizing John Denver classic ‘Take me home Country Roads’ with the audience pitching in with the lyrics for good measure.
‘Let’s get Physical, Physical’ screamed the audience as ONJ turned on the heat a notch higher with a song that has been declared one of the sexiest songs of all time by Billboard magazine.
ONJ proved to be the musical idol that we dreamed her to be, as she channelled her star prowess to enthrall her fans with a haunting rendition of Judy Collin’s, ‘Send in the clowns, followed by the songs ‘Grace and gratitude, ‘Not gonna give in to it’ and a medley of infectious music from her upcoming movie ‘A few best men.’
She didn’t disappoint her loyal fans, as the audience journeyed back to the 70’s revelling in delightful memories of the evergreen Grease era, with popular numbers like ‘You’re the one that I want’, ‘Hopelessly devoted to you and ‘Summer nights’ as they moved and grooved to melodies that evoked a pang of nostalgia.
The night, ended on a high with ONJ singing one of her biggest singles, ‘I honestly love you’, as she bid goodbye to her multitude of fans, and left the island for Jakarta, Indonesia.
Review by Shabnam Farook
Pics by Nisal Baduge
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