By Savanna Young For Chron Australia and NCA NewsWire 04:37 18 Feb 2023, updated 05:09 18 Feb 2023
The last song recorded by Olivia Newton-John was posted posthumously online a week before she is to be honored with a state funeral.
Newton-John died at her ranch in Southern California in August last year at the age of 73.
The song is a duet by Dolly Parton’s country hit Jolene, which she sang with Parton in an intimate studio recording session some time before her death.
A music video posted to YouTube on Saturday shows the pair are clearly thrilled to record their singing together.
“I’m excited, I’ve always wanted to sing with Dolly,” Newton-John says in the video.
The very last song recorded by Olivia Newton-John (right) was posted posthumously online, a week before she will be honored with a state funeral
She famously covered the song in 1976, three years after the song was originally released by Parton.
“I’m so excited to be working with Olivia Newton-John, one of my all-time favorites,” Parton said in the video.
“We have always remained close over the years and I am so proud to be a part of this duet project.”
The song is a duet by Dolly Parton’s (pictured) country hit Jolene, which she sang with Parton in an intimate studio recording some time before her late Newton-John famously covered the song in 1976, three years after the song was originally released by Parton
A state memorial service will be held at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall Arts Center on Sunday 26 February to honor the life of Newton-John.
She emigrated from England with her family at the age of five and spent most of her childhood in Melbourne.
The popular actress and singer rose to international fame when she starred opposite John Travolta in the 1978 musical film Grease.
A state memorial service will be held at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall Arts Center on Sunday 26 February to honor the life of Newton-John
Establishing herself as one of the best-selling female music artists of all time, she has been nominated for 12 Grammy Awards, including four wins.
The release comes after Newton-John’s husband John Easterling and daughter Chloe Lattanzi spoke about the final moments spent with her before she died.
Lattanzi, 37, revealed her mother’s heartbreaking last words in an interview with the US TV program Today.
Establishing herself as one of the best-selling female music artists of all time, Newton-John has been nominated for 12 Grammy Awards, including four wins
“The last words she could say to me were… ‘my sunshine,'” she said.
Until she could no longer use her voice, Olivia would joke with her daughter and the two shared some special moments towards the end.
“She’s my mom. She’s not Olivia Newton-John to me, but I’m so glad she was Olivia Newton-John to so many people,” she added.
Newton-John’s husband John Easterling and daughter Chloe Lattanzi opened up about the final moments spent with her before her death
Chloe is Olivia’s daughter with her first husband Matt Lattanzi, to whom she was married between 1984 and 1995.
Meanwhile, John, who married Olivia in 2008, said he felt his late wife’s presence the most “late at night, early in the morning.”
He speaks aloud to his late wife at their California ranch after six months have passed since their death.
Lattanzi, 37, revealed her mother’s heartbreaking last words in an interview with Today
“I’ll just walk around the house or throw the ball to the dogs and just talk to her out loud,” he said.
John told the program he was lucky to have found his soulmate and it was his duty to live life for the two now.
Olivia’s first cancer diagnosis came in 1992, before the disease went into remission, and later returned in 2013 and 2017.
John told the program he was lucky to have found his soulmate and it was his duty to live life for the two now