Birthname: Delta Lea Goodrem
Date of birth: 1984-11-09
Birthplace: Sydney, Australia
Height: 5' 1
Profession: Singer, and actress
Delta Lea Goodrem (born November 9, 1984) is a multi-ARIA Award winning Australian singer-songwriter, pianist and actress.
Signed to Sony at the age of 15, Goodrem rose to prominence in 2002 as a result of her role in the Australian television series
Neighbours. She has become one of Australia's highest selling recording artists, her albums
Innocent Eyes and
Mistaken Identity both entering the Australian charts at number one with multi-platinum sales. Goodrem has to date, achieved seven number one singles and in mid-2005, embarked on The Visualise Tour, her debut concert tour of Australia. In 2003, at the age of 18, Goodrem was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a form of cancer. She has since made a full recovery.
Biography
Childhood and discovery
Goodrem was born on November 9, 1984 in Sydney, New South Wales and is the daughter of Denis and Lea Goodrem. She has a younger brother named Trent. Goodrem showed a strong interest in music and performing from a very young age. At five, she performed Olivia Newton John's "Hopelessly Devoted to You" for her father's fortieth birthday. She attended The Hills Grammar School in the Sydney suburb of Dural, though due to her school placing strong emphasis on sport (Goodrem taking part in numerous activities such as netball, running and swimming), music was primarily kept separate. At the age of seven, she appeared in an American commercial for the Galoob toy company, starring alongside fellow Australian performer Bec Cartwright. She began learning the piano at the age of ten, took up singing, dancing and acting lessons and appeared in numerous television commercials and shows. At twelve, she was signed as the Nesquik girl for four years. Goodrem also made small appearances in episodes of successful Australian shows
Hey Dad...!,
A Country Practice and
Police Rescue. She saved up the money she earnt from these roles to go towards recording a demo CD.
At the age of thirteen, Goodrem recorded a demo CD with five songs she had written (as well the Australian national anthem) and sent the CD out to family and friends. A girlfriend of Goodrem's sent it to the Sydney Swans Football Club (of which Goodrem is a supporter) and they passed it onto another Swans fan, Glenn Wheatley, the manager behind successful Australian artists such as Little River Band and John Farnham. Interested to see if Goodrem had potential as a recording artist, Wheatley signed Goodrem an artist development deal with independent label, Empire Records. Between June 1999 to September 2000, Goodrem worked with producers Paul Higgins and Trevor Carter on thirteen tracks for an album called
Delta, which saw "an ambitious 15-year-old keen to emulate the pop sound of the Spice Girls, Britney Spears and Mandy Moore". The album has yet to surface, Goodrem preventing its release years later via civil action in 2004.
Music career
2001-2003: Career launch and Innocent Eyes
At the age of fifteen, Goodrem landed a record deal with Sony and began work on an album of pop-dance songs with various producers and songwriters (including Mark Holden). In November 2001, at the age of sixteen, Goodrem's debut single "I Don't Care", written and produced by Steve Kipner (responsible for Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle") launched her professional singing career. The single was unsuccessful when it peak at #64 on the ARIA Singles chart and as a result, the album and proposed second single "A Year Ago Today" (for which a music video was created) were scrapped. The failure of "I Don't Care" allowed Goodrem and Sony to re-evaluate the future musical direction of her career. The following year, Goodrem joined the cast of
Neighbours.
" (2003) cemented Goodrem's rising popularity.]]
In November 2002, Goodrem released the first single from her debut album, "Born to Try". A drastic change from the bubblegum pop of her debut single, this piano-based ballad debuted at #3 on the ARIA Singles chart before climbing to #1, becoming the third highest selling single of 2002. In January 2003, follow up single, "Lost Without You", topped the charts for two weeks while cementing Goodrem's popularity amongst the general Australian public. In the UK, she released "Born to Try" where it debuted and peaked at #3.
Her debut album
Innocent Eyes, a collection of light pop tracks and big ballads (most of which were either written or co-written by Goodrem), was released in March 2003, debuting at #1. The third single, the title track "Innocent Eyes", debuted at #2 and peaked at #1. Promotion for the single included a Melbourne instore in which Goodrem signed autographs for a record eight hours to an estimated crowd of 10,000 people. In the UK, "Lost Without You" debuted at #4 while the album debuted and peaked at #2, going on to sell over 750,000 copies. Following UK single, "Innocent Eyes" became another top ten. In July, it was announced that Goodrem had been diagnosed with cancer.
"Not Me, Not I" became Goodrem's fourth consecutive Australian #1, beating the previous effort of three #1's from Kylie Minogue's debut
Kylie album. She also became the only international or Australian act in history to be credited as the performer and writer of four ARIA #1 hits. The music video for "Not Me, Not I" was recorded close after the announcement of her cancer diagnosis and was the last kind of work Goodrem would undertake before beginning treatment. In early October, it was announced that Goodrem would not renew her contract with Glenn Wheatley, Lea Goodrem replacing him as her manager. Later the same month, Goodrem won a staggering seven ARIA Awards including "Best Female Artist", surpassing Natalie Imbruglia's previous record of six awards in 1999. Too unwell to perform at the ceremony, former Savage Garden singer Darren Hayes performed a rendition of "Lost Without You" as a tribute to her, bringing an overwhelmed Goodrem to tears. The final Australian single and fifth #1 from
Innocent Eyes, "Predictable" was released in December and featured a cover of John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)". A promo single of "Throw It Away" was released to the UK media early 2004. Although not comerically released, it was avaliable to download online.
In the first week of December 2003,
Innocent Eyes broke an Australian record previously held by John Farnham's
Whispering Jack (1986), staying at #1 for 25 consecutive weeks. It was the highest selling album in Australia of 2003. In total,
Innocent Eyes spent 29 weeks at #1, tied with Neil Diamond's
Hot August Night (1972), as the second longest charting number-one album in Australian history.
Innocent Eyes has been certified 14x platinum in Australia alone, while the album has sold close to three million copies worldwide.
2004-2005: Mistaken Identity and The Visualise Tour
After announcing in late December 2003 that she was in remission, Goodrem began work on her second album. In October 2004, she released the first single, "Out of the Blue". The ballad, co-written with UK songwriter-producer Guy Chambers, was well received by the public, debuting at #1, certified platinum. Goodrem performed "Out of the Blue" for the first time at the 2004 ARIA Awards. In the UK, the single debuted at #9.
Goodrem's second album
Mistaken Identity was released on November 7, 2004 and debuted at #1 in Australia, also charting in the UK, New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland. The album is noted for its darker lyrics and mature themes, many of the songs (most notably "Extraordinary Day") detailing the hardships of Goodrem's previous twelve months while undergoing cancer treatment. The album's second Australian single, the title track "Mistaken Identity", debuted and peaked at #7 in January 2005, breaking Goodrem's string of consecutive #1 singles. The track was not promoted by Goodrem as she busy in the UK, promoting her second UK single "Almost Here", a duet with Irish singer and former Westlife member Brian McFadden. The duet debuted at #3, her equal best, although no further UK singles were released from
Mistaken Identity. In Australia, "Almost Here" debuted at #1 and was certified platinum, becoming Goodrem's seventh #1. In May 2005, the fourth single from
Mistaken Identity, the up-tempo track "A Little Too Late", proved far less successful than Goodrem's previous efforts, debuting and peaking at #13.
In July 2005, Goodrem embarked on her first headline concert tour, The Visualise Tour. She began with a "preview show" in Newcastle, before heading to Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. The tour came under criticism when tickets were put on sale for $99 Australian dollars ($199 for VIP tickets); higher than most international acts touring in Australia at the time and this led to initially slow sales. By the time the concerts were due to take place, many venues sold out after tickets were reduced to $60. Once the tour concluded, over 80,000 tickets had been bought in total making the The Visualise Tour one of Australia's highest selling local tours.
A fifth single from
Mistaken Identity, the inspirational ballad "Be Strong" (written for the late cancer sufferer Belinda Emmett) was released in September 2005 as a digital-only single. The b-sides featured live tour performances of "Be Strong" and "Last Night on Earth" and at one stage of the download chart, all three songs made up the top three. The DVD was released in November 2005 and became Goodrem's second consectutive #1 DVD when it debuted on the ARIA DVD chart.
2005-present: Post-Mistaken Identity activities
In April 2005, Goodrem's international record contract was extended to the United States with Columbia Records, an imprint of Sony Music. She relocated herself in New York and starred in North American soap opera series
North Shore in an attempt to break into the American market, performing her first US single "Lost Without You" on the show. Reports soon began to circulate that Columbia had issued an ultimatum with Goodrem, asking to drop mother Lea Goodrem as her manager.. The rumour was denied by both Goodrem and her mother, stating that Lea was to remain as Goodrem's manager in Australia, and that there had always been plans to hire a separate manager in the US. On June 28 2005, a new, re-recorded version of "Lost Without You" was released to digital download stores, such as iTunes, receiving early spins on Adult Contemporary radio stations across America. Goodrem attended the 2005 American Music Awards, winning the award for "Highest Selling Australian Artist". The single however, proved of only limited success, peaking at #18 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, but failing to enter The Billboard Hot 100. There were plans to release a hybrid of her first two albums, entitled
Born to Try, though after numerous delays, this now looks unlikely to occur. In an interview, Goodrem confirmed that she had put America on hold and instead wished to concentrate on her third studio album.
On March 15, 2006, Goodrem performed a brand new song "Together We Are One" at the MCG for the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Written by Goodrem, Brian McFadden and Guy Chambers especially for the ceremony, the performance saw Goodrem surrounded by fireworks in front of 80,000 spectators and up to 1.5 billion television viewers worldwide. Due to pressure from fans, "Together We Are One" was released as an Australian single in April and debuted at #2 on the ARIA Singles chart. The song was performed on American television by the final five contestants of
American Idol. In June, Goodrem signed to Modest! Entertainment for her world-wide management in the lead up to the release of her third studio album, which is due for release in early to mid-2007.
" which will appear in the upcoming Japanese film,
Adiantum Blue. The album debuted at #17 on the Japanese international chart (excluding Japanese artists) and #24 on the official Japanese album chart (including Japanese artists). As of November 2006, due to her appearance on Music Station (highly popular music TV in Japan) and her instores, the album has to date peaked at #8 on the Japanese international chart and #19 on the official Japanese album chart.
In Los Angeles earlier this year, Goodrem recorded a duet with Tony Bennett on his song "Steppin' Out With My Baby" for the Australian edition of his album , released in September 2006. She also features on the new Westlife album
The Love Album on a cover of "All Out of Love". Goodrem performed the song with Westlife on
The X Factor on 18 November 2006. She is currently in L.A., writing and producing material for her third studio album.
In early December 2006, a song named "On My Own" was leaked onto the internet and was available for download on various websites. It talks of losing herself and is believed to have been written about her break up with Mark Philippoussis. It is also believe to have been recorded around the same time as Mistaken Identity but did not make the final cut.
Acting career
In 2002, Goodrem took up the role as shy school girl and aspiring singer Nina Tucker in the long-running Australian soap
Neighbours. Like former
Neighbours actresses turned pop singers, Kylie Minogue and Natalie Imbruglia, the show helped Goodrem launch her career as a singer. Her single "Born to Try" premiered on the show when Tucker's singing talents were discovered by her friend Connor O'Neill. Other key storylines involving Tucker include her love affair with Jack Scully as well as the relationship with her mother Trixie Tucker. Goodrem ceased work on the show when diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in mid-2003, but following her recovery, made a brief return to the show. Goodrem's role scored her a Silver Logie for "Most Popular New Talent" at the 2003 Logie Awards and two other nominations at the 2004 Logie Awards. Since
Neighbours, Goodrem has appeared in the last two episodes of short-lived American series,
North Shore, playing a singer named Taylor Ward.
In March 2005, she starred in her first film role of
Hating Alison Ashley, a movie based on the popular children's novel, Goodrem acting the title character). Despite a #4 debut on the Australian box office charts, the film performed poorly overall. Some critics accused Goodrem's performance of being too robotic and detached.
Personal life
Cancer
On July 8, 2003, at the age of 18, Goodrem was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a form of cancer which attacks the body's immune system. As a result, she was forced to put all working commitments on hold while undertaking treatment for the disease. In an exclusive interview with the Australian Women's Weekly, Goodrem revealed that her body had been giving warning signs since 2002. Symptoms included a head to toe rash, fatigue, weight loss, night sweats and appearance of a lump on her neck. "I was doing sit-ups when I felt something pop in my neck. I reached down and I felt a small lump at the base of my throat. It wasn't sore, it wasn't visible, but I could feel it."As part of her treatment, Goodrem undertook chemotherapy, which resulted in the loss of her hair, and radiation therapy.
News of her diagnosis appeared on the front pages of newspapers and an outpour of support was shown by fans and the general public alike, Goodrem thanking them during The Visualise Tour for all the letters and well wishes she received. Reflecting on that period of her life, Goodrem says, "It's weird to see pictures of that time. In some ways the fact that I was so sick was so out there, and yet I kept it really private. No-one saw me on the days I was really sick...I was 18 when I was diagnosed and I had a number one album and single in the country. And in the UK, I was number two. It was such a bipolar year".
Relationships
Goodrem has to date been involved in three high-profile relationships. During her time on
Neighbours, she was romantically linked with fellow cast member Blair McDonough. Goodrem's song "Not Me, Not I" is widely speculated to be written about their breakup. In 2004, while going through remission, Goodrem began a nine month relationship with Australian tennis player Mark Philippoussis. Goodrem's song "Out of the Blue" is widely assumed to be about their relationship. The couple began their relationship after meeting at a tennis tournament, where Goodrem thanked him for expressing support for her cancer recovery (Philippoussis' father had also battled Hodgkin's Lymphoma). , though he has denied the allegations.
On the
Mistaken Identity album, Goodrem collaborated with Irish singer Brian McFadden on the duet "Almost Here". In early January 2005, reports suggested the pair were romantically engaged after being photographed together on a beach resort in South Africa, although both denied this.. A week later, the Sunday Mirror reported that McFadden had admitted the relationship. The couple underwent weeks of tabloid scrutiny, focusing particularly on the fallout of McFadden's marriage with former Atomic Kitten star Kerry Katona. Press speculation suggested that the pair had embarked on their affair before McFadden had separated with Katona. This was denied by both Goodrem and McFadden. There have been numerous rumours that McFadden and Goodrem have become engaged, but these have been denied. The couple's relationship faced further scrutinty in May 2006 when a newspaper claimed that Goodrem's mother had advised her to end her relationship with McFadden.
Charity work
Goodrem is a member of RADD (Recording Artists, Actors And Athletes Against Drink Driving), a group of celebrities using their position to rally, and raise awareness of the risks of drunk driving. She has recorded a message, which has aired on Australian radio, about the risks of drink driving.
Goodrem also uses her experience with cancer to raise awareness for other young people affected by the disease, helping to launch a UK web site specifically aimed at young teenagers affected, in mid 2005. She is a well-known ambassador for Research Australia's Thank You Day, which celebrates the country's health and medical researchers. She makes regular appearances at local charity events; on November 7 2005, Goodrem received a Thank You Day Celebrity Advocacy Award "in recognition of her efforts in raising funds and awareness for Australian medical research and charities." She has established the Delta Goodrem Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Trust Fund, created to help raise funds for Hodgkin's patients. A percentage of all CDs, concert tickets and merchandise sold goes towards the charity.
