Olivia Newton-John fans are enjoying new music from the late superstar after an old songwriter friend found a demo recording at his house, and decided to finish producing the track as a tribute.
Songwriter John Brickman, who worked with Olivia on her tours across North America during the 1990s, found her My Dream demo on a cassette at his home and called in Italian trio Il Volo to finish the song.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: New Olivia Newton-John song released.
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Newton-John died, aged 73, at her home in southern California in August, 2022 following a long battle with breast cancer, which included three bouts of the disease.
The singer famously turned her tragic health battles into a positive, becoming an adovcate and champion of women living with the condition over her three decades-long journey.
On Monday, Brickman appeared on The Morning Show, where he explained the exciting find.
“This is a song that we wrote about 15 years ago,” he began.
“I was going through some of my old cassettes and I found one that said My Dream on it, and it was the one we recorded, but we never released it.”
Brickman said the pair first met about 25 years ago, when he was the opening act during one of Newton-John’s North American tours and they had become close friends.
“I’d done duets with people for many years, but there was nothing like that experience. (Newton-John) spoilt me because she treated me with such respect.
“She would stand off-stage, and I’m at the piano, so I’m looking right off-stage, and she would stand there and just watch me at my show before she went out … sometimes with curlers in her hair, getting ready for her set.
“(She was just) so kind and respectful to my art. And then she would say, ‘Good on you. That was a really great set’. And that never happens. And it hasn’t happened since.”
Brickman said Olivia Newton-John’s family were thrilled with the new music, with proceeds from the song going to the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund.
“The most special thing about their reaction was that all of the proceeds to the entire recording and its success will go to the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund for Cancer Research,” he said.
“Also because the song is called My Dream, and in her statement about the fund and cancer research she says it was her dream to find a cure for cancer.”
Brickman said he had also found another demo called Change of Heart, so fans may get even more new music in the future.
“We wrote another song called Change of Heart, which you just showed there from one of my TV specials, where she guest-starred, and I found the original demo of that,” he said.
“We since recorded it and put it out so it doesn’t have as much significance as the never heard, but it was another cassette. I just thought, you know, this is meant to be. She’s sending me this music.”