Finding the right words in the face of grief can be next to impossible.

But Liv On, a compelling new album from Olivia Newton-John, Beth Nielsen and Amy Sky, embraces loss and grief while inspiring a journey toward new-found meaning and hope.

Liv On, a two-year project, was conceived because grief is universal and knows no boundaries. It was grief that linked the singers to collaborate on this 11-song collection that grew out of their personal experiences with loss and illness, experiences they all survived, to live on and celebrate each day with gratitude.

Toronto’s SOCAN Award-winner Amy Sky is well-known for using real-life experiences in her songwriting. She is a prolific and multi-talented musician who has written for herself and dozens of other international recording stars.

Sky was grieving the loss of her mother, Sandy Shiner; Newton-John the loss of her sister, Rona Newton-John; and Nielsen Chapman the loss of her first husband, Ernest Chapman.

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“There is little to no music for people going through grief. Our intention was to create inspiring, uplifting and hopeful songs that will bring you to a place of healing,” Newton-John said.

Despite having a career spanning over five decades and more than 100 million albums sold, multiple Grammy Award-winner Newton-John still conjures memories of sweet Sandy in the musical film Grease.

Newton-John’ also has a Jewish connection, with roots dating back to her grandfather, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born. “My grandfather was a wonderful humanitarian as well as a brilliant scientist. He smuggled Jews out of Germany in World War II,” Newton-John said.

Grammy nominee Beth Nielsen Chapman is slated to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame this fall, and is a self-described “creativity whisperer” and “honourary Jew” because her husband is Jewish.

“We all have these amazing long and winding stories about our lives, Nielsen Chapman said, “and we have been good friends for a while. We got together to write, meeting in Las Vegas and at Olivia’s ranch in Los Angeles. It went so well, it was obvious we were doing what we were supposed to be doing.”

Grief is universal and not often enough addressed in music, the friends agreed.

“Everybody has gone through loss and grief at some point: the loss of a relationship or a pet, a job, moving, or any major life transition,” Newton-John said.

“It’s important to open up that conversation about loss and death and things that we often keep to ourselves,” she added.

This kind of communication helps us deal with our loss.

“One of the most healing things around grief – other than coming to terms with your journey – is the gaining of knowledge that you are part of a community of people that are learning to live on. It helps to know we are not alone with our pain,” Sky said.

“One of the things we wanted to do was explore the rainbow of emotions that surround grief. Unexpressed emotions are the most painful thing any of us can live with, and music and poetry are a way of moving that energy – by feeling it fully and letting it move through you instead of having it get stuck,” said Sky.

The threesome wrote five songs together and pulled favourites from their past repertoires.

With ballads such as Liv On, Don’t Know What to Say, Sand and Water, My Heart Goes Out to You, Immortality and Stone in My Pocket, the lyrics express different stages of the recovery process while validating the experience so the listener can heal again and soar.

Every track has a different message.

“The first song that we wrote for the project was called Stone in my Pocket. The writing of it went really fast, as we had great chemistry between us in the creative process. We started singing together and it just unfolded,” Nielsen Chapman said.

“Stone in My Pocket is a good-natured protest that shouts out that you just can’t get away from the weight of grief. You have to learn to live with what we like to call the stone in our pocket,” Sky said.

“In the beginning, you feel like you are carrying a boulder around with you, but in time it may feel like a stone or a pebble. It’s not something that ever goes away,” said Newton-John.

“The title song, Liv On, is about living on through your pain. It provides an uplifting sensibility of what this entire project is about,” Nielsen Chapman said.n