Melbourne, Australia, and The World Say Goodbye...

I mentioned this when the announcement finally went through a couple weeks back.

After months of discussions and input from Olivia Newton-John's surviving family, the Australian state of Victoria (since, when Olivia was Australian in her youth, she grew up in Melbourne) is holding a "State Memorial Service" today (as I type this, at 4:33 Pacific US Standard Time, it is 11:33 AM Sunday morning, Australian Eastern Daylight Time) in about 4 1/2 hours.  A memorial picture loop will begin, with photos from the family's personal collection, on both the livestream and at the venue, at about 3:25 AEDT (8:25 PM PST, 11:25 PM EST), with the service to begin at the top of the following hour.

Tickets long since were snapped up, but the Victorian government had put up a page to watch (or re-watch) the service.  The service was taken down Monday morning, March 6th, Australia time.

The two major national television stations, Seven and Nine, will also provide coverage of the event.  Judging by the television block-off, the service will probably be between 60 and 80 minutes in length.

From the understanding we've been given, "service" is going to be a very relaxed term for this.  "Concert" is far more likely.

Couple of side notes:

1) I would not be surprised if the family insisted, as part of trying to take some of the depression out of the event (the idea that this is more to be a "Celebration of Life" concert than an actual funeral/service being another part), that this was not to be seen as a "state funeral", but as a "state memorial service".

2) Some, including myself, might -- at first -- wonder why Australia didn't go all the way for a national state funeral in honor of one of the first people many of a couple generations worldwide came to mind when the name "Australia" was mentioned.

It turns out that there is no real mechanism for a national "state funeral" in Australia.  Even deceased heads of state (prime ministers) of the nation are accorded a state funeral in the state in which they prominently lived.  And Olivia, as one of the most prominent Australians of the last 75 years, got the same distinction.  So this will have to suffice.

To give you an idea:  With Olivia's passing, a Wikipedia list now notes there are only six living Australian Dames.  (Soon, there may be none -- only one of the six was younger than Olivia, and her, only by two years.)  Olivia was not only a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), but also a Dame of the British Empire (DBE).

So Olivia's full name and title, and it's used for the service, is Dame Olivia Newton-John AC DBE.