JACKSONVILLE — The 2004 Britt Music Festivals season concluded on a high note Sunday night with an enthusiastic performance by famed singer/actress Olivia Newton-John.

An unusually fine opening act featuring The Coats, an a cappella quartet, also helped make it a special evening, enjoyed by a sellout crowd.

Newton-John, who was accompanied by a six-member band and two other vocalists, offered a solid one hour and 25-minute show covering many highlights of her career.

Like Burt Bacharach and several other recent performers at Britt, Newton-John is perhaps better known for work she did 25 to 30 years ago, yet she continues to be in the public eye.

In 2002, she released a collection of duets, called "2." And now she has another new album, "Indigo," in the works.

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Her program at Britt Sunday night consisted of about 20 songs, leading off with one of her first big hits, "Have You Never Been Mellow," and concluding with her signature closing number, "I Honestly Love You." In between were selected songs from various eras of her life.

The singer was born in England in 1948 and moved to Australia with her family when she was 5, growing up in Melbourne. She began appearing on Australian TV and music programs in the 1960s.

Her first hit on the American charts came in 1973 with the album, "Let Me Be There." She was honored by the Academy of Country Music as Most Promising Female Vocalist and won a Grammy Award as Best Country Vocalist.

So, of course, the Britt concert included a "country segment."

More successes followed, including three more Grammys, numerous other awards, five No. 1 hits including "Physical," which topped the charts for 10 weeks, and 15 top-10 singles.

Newton-John gave the Britt audience a jazzy version of "Physical," one of the evening’s highlights. She remarked that it was the only one of her songs ever to be banned (but didn’t say where), although most would find the lyrics tame by contemporary standards.

In 1978, her co-starring role with John Travolta in "Grease" made Newton-John a film star as well as an award-winning singer. The movie was re-released in 1998. And so the Britt show featured a "Grease" segment with "You’re The One That I Want," "Summer Nights," and "Hopelessly Devoted To You."

Vocalists Steve Real and Warren Ham took part in the duets.

Her other film credits include "Xanadu," "Two of a Kind," "It’s My Party," and recently the independent feature, "Sordid Lives."

A "Xanadu" segment early in the concert covered that period.

She also sang her own version of "Alfie" from her latest album and an old Julie London song, "Cry Me a River."

Newton-John survived a bout with breast cancer in the 1990s and paid tribute to that era with a song about never giving in.

In 1999, with the release of her album, "Back With A Heart," she returned to work as a performer touring in the U.S. for the first time in 17 years.

Newton-John’s current U.S. tour began Sept. 1 in Pueblo, Colo., and moved on into California. From Jacksonville she goes on to Michigan, Texas, Oklahoma and then to the East, concluding the tour Nov. 19-21 in Baltimore.

The opening act, The Coats, finalized just three days ago, turned out to be a winner.

The a cappella vocal quartet is from Washington state. The four are Kerry Dablen, Doug Wisness, Jamie Dieveney and Keith, who gives no last name.

They offered harmony, comedy and a few serious moments during a 35-minute show and earned a standing ovation from the Britt crowd.