‘I really had to work for it’: Courtney Act on loving – and performing – Olivia Newton-John

‘Olivia was such a fierce advocate.’ Courtney Act dressed to perform Olivia Newton-John’s Xanadu. Photograph: Mitch Major

Courtney Act, the acclaimed drag queen who goes by Shane Jenek when out of the frocks, was in a gay bar in the US when he heard Olivia Newton-John had died. “I wasn’t in drag, but I just felt like I had to get on stage and sing Xanadu,” Jenek says.

It is one of his favourite songs to sing – and not just because it is a gay classic or one of Newton-John’s most recognisable hits. “It’s also dear to my heart because it’s one of those songs that taught me that you can learn to perform a song,” he says. “I really had to work for it. I first performed it in 2004 with a live band and I didn’t like it – maybe I didn’t have the zing for the crowd or the tempo, I’m not sure – but when I had another shot and did it again, it just worked and everything fell into place.”

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In April, Courtney Act will perform alongside David Campbell, Jess Hitchcock, Georgina Hopson and Christie Whelan Browne for a special Newton-John tribute, aptly named Hopelessly Devoted to You. They will be accompanied by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO), which will perform Newton-John’s songs, arranged and conducted by Nicholas Buc, who has also been involved in the orchestra’s other forays outside classical music, with acts such as Lior and Birds of Tokyo. Act will be the first drag performer the QSO has performed with – hopefully the first of more to come.

It is an “amazing” opportunity, Jenek says – and not just for him: “I get to be part of marrying pop music with a symphony orchestra. [Newton-John’s] music is probably more broadly known by an audience that’s not that familiar with classical music. I’m really excited to have the chance to bring people into that world who wouldn’t normally be there.”

Newton-John’s career spanned more than 40 years, beginning in the 1970s and including starring roles in Grease and Xanadu. She won four Grammys and blasted into the charts numerous times in Australia, the US, and the UK. A quintessential Australian icon, Newton-John used her status to elevate the causes she believed in – like breast cancer, which she was first diagnosed with in 1992 at the age of 44. She would battle breast cancer three times, using her experience to encourage conversations around cancer detection and treatment, putting her name to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre (ONJ Centre) in Victoria.

“Olivia was such a fierce advocate, and talked so openly about her struggle with cancer,” Jenek says. “While also being an incredible singer and performer.”

Aside from his affection for Newton-John, there is a deeper significance to his being asked to perform alongside an orchestra: “In a world of AI and digital computer-generated music, to sit there with 40 or 50 other humans all holding acoustic instruments, filling up the space both physically and with sound – it’s something that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years.”

“I don’t know if there’s anything else we do today that’s exactly the same as it was long, long ago, except maybe gathering together to eat food. I’m so honoured to be a part of a group that comes together to make one beautiful sound – there’s really nothing else like it.”