“In May this year Tina Arena stood on the AWMA stage and sang Olivia Newton John’s ‘I Honestly Love You’ as we inducted her onto the AWMA Honour Roll. It was a song co-written by Peter Allen and it expresses what I think we all feel about what Olivia gave to us – in our childhoods, in our adolescence, in our lives – a radiant positivity that she expressed in song.

What does it mean to acknowledge that Olivia was proudly Australian when she was such an international superstar? It is an acknowledgement that genius of that brilliance can grow in this soil, on this land and in this culture. That we lift up in value and esteem the Australian women singers, songwriters and cultural leaders who gift us so much beauty and creativity by using their talent to create music.

In this devastating week when we have lost two such brave and beautiful women, AWMA takes comfort from the fact that it is our mission to raise up, value, acknowledge and celebrate all our visionary female musical talent. We are so humbled that Olivia was the most recent inductee on our Honour Roll and we join with everyone whose lives she touched in tribute to all she offered to the world through her music.” Vicki Gordon, Founding AWMA Executive Producer and Program Director.