LIVE ON
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills.
Tickets: $44-$88.
Information: 888-645-5006, www.sabanconcerts.com.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills.
Tickets: $44-$88.
Information: 888-645-5006, www.sabanconcerts.com.
When Grammy-winning singer Olivia Newton-John usually performs, she delivers the hits people expect, like “Physical” or “You’re the One That I Want” and “Summer Nights.”
But when she comes to the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills on Feb. 11, she’s promising to deliver something a little different when she performs songs from her new collaborative album.
“The message is, ‘Live on,’ ” the 68-year-old singer said in a phone interview.
“It was a work of love and we have some really beautiful songs on it,” she added, referring to the new album “Live On,” a collaboration with singer-songwriters Beth Nielsen Chapman and Amy Sky.
The 11-song release is made up of a collection of melodic songs meant to uplift the spirits of people who are dealing with grief.
It includes such songs as “My Heart Goes Out to You,” “Immortality,” and the title track “Live On.”
The trio will perform an acoustic set together at the Saban as part of a tour in support of the album.
“We’re going to be talking about the songs and our experiences,” Newton-John said.
The collaboration was born three years ago out of tragic events experienced by all three singers.
It was around that time that Sky’s mother died and Chapman lost her husband to cancer while Newton-John lost her sister to brain cancer.
As she always does, Newton-John turned to music to help her heal and wrote a song for her sister. She then asked Sky to help her with it.
“We talked about it, and we thought it would be wonderful to create an album for people going through (loss and grief) as everybody does at one point,” Newton-John recalled.
So they brought in Chapman and got to work on the music.
The songs touch on the different levels of grief people go through.
“They make you feel,” Newton-John said. “Sometimes to cry is important. It makes you feel that you’re not alone, and there are other people going through the same thing.”
The opening song, “My Heart Goes Out to You,” for example looks at what to say when you don’t know what to say to someone who is going through a loss.
The title track is a particularly meaningful song for Newton-John, with lyrics that talk about being grateful for every day you have.
“If there’s one thing that grief and loss have taught me is gratitude for everything that you have and every moment that you’re alive,” she said.
For the singer, writing these songs and talking about them with Sky and Chapman as they worked on the album has indeed helped her deal with the death of her sister.
“I think it was a very healing thing for me,” she said. “Music has a way of touching people in ways they don’t often anticipate.”
It also helped her form a strong bond with her musical partners.
“What I’m really looking forward to is singing with these wonderful girls,” she said. “We’ve become sisters through this project.”
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