Delta Goodrem: Elevation - Aussie superpower finally flies in U.S.

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When Delta Goodrem was cast in Australia's long-running

serial "Neighbours" in 2002, the teenager didn't care for the "bad

girl" character written for her -- and had the audacity to renege on

the potentially career-making role.

 

Goodrem had already signed a development deal with Sony Records and

felt the part didn't suit the hopeful tone of her music. "It's hard

now to believe I had the courage to do that," the 23-year-old says.

But as it turns out, show producers wanted to fly with Delta and

rewrote the role of shy coffee-shop staffer/budding singer "Nina

Tucker" to her liking—and she signed on.

 

Goodrem has certainly made good on not being bad—but her story has

since played out with more real-life melodrama than any soap. When

her latest album, "Delta," arrives July 15, it will represent the

culmination of five topsy-turvy years.

 

Her first single "Born to Try" (Columbia)—introduced on "Neighbours"

in 2003—rallied to No. 1 at home in Oz, while her debut

album "Innocent Eyes" spent 29 weeks as a chart-topper, selling 14-

times platinum and winning seven Australian Recording Industry Assn.

Awards. The record also made her a star in the United Kingdom,

Ireland, Greece, Sweden and Japan.

 

And then her career came to a precipitous halt when late that year,

at 18, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that

attacks the immune system. A U.S. launch on Columbia was

compromised; single "Lost Without You" reached No. 18 at AC, but too

weak to promote it, Goodrem's planned album was scrapped.

 

After chemotherapy and radiation, her 2004 sophomore CD "Mistaken

Identity" was released in established territories and, not

surprisingly, displayed a starker lyrical side. Goodrem says, "I was

young, but never naïve, and found strength as a woman. I know it was

intense, even tiring." Fans stood alongside (even as she retired

from "Neighbours"), with another No. 1. Then, "Delta" in 2007 became

her third consecutive chart-topping disc. "The title reflects that

I'm my own person now, I've learned a lot," she says. "You can only

control so much in life."

 

Now, she returns to the States—all told with a string of eight No.

1s among 13 top 40 Australian singles to date. Signed to Mercury's

resurrected imprint Decca in the U.S., Goodrem has a mighty

proponent in label president David Massey—a former global A&R exec

for Sony who was integral in grooming her in 2002.

 

It's a slightly reconfigured "Delta" arriving Stateside. The first

single, the uptempo, piano-fervent "In This Life"—produced by Grammy

Award winner John Shanks and co-written by Goodrem and fiancé Bryan

McFadden (formerly of hitmaking Irish boy band Westlife)—is bulleted

at No. 35 at adult top 40. She's partnered with ION Television for

its fall launch, including on-air imaging and exposure of "In This

Life" and "Believe Again" (a No. 2 single in Oz). She'll appear at

the American Cancer Society's fall charity Dreamball and the Jorge

Posada Foundation's seventh annual Heroes of Hope Gala, hosted by

Kelly Ripa, both in New York.

 

In addition, Goodrem recorded a duet, "Right Here With You," with

fellow Aussie and cancer survivor Olivia Newton-John for the July

album release "Olivia Newton-John & Friends: A Celebration in Song,"

with proceeds to benefit her Cancer and Wellness Centre.

 

"It's even more rewarding that I get to come back and start

properly," Goodrem says of her U.S. relaunch. "I'm hungry for this

and committed to being a new artist. I feel like I was always meant

to do this, like there's a chip in my body that says, 'OK, what's

next?'"

 

great article. thanks