1984–2000: Early life and discovery Delta Lea Goodrem was born in Sydney on 9 November 1984, to Lea () and Denis Goodrem. She has a younger brother, Trent. Goodrem appeared in an American advertisement aged seven for the former toy company
Galoob, alongside fellow Australian
Bec Hewitt, and began playing piano at the same age while taking up singing, dancing and acting lessons. She appeared in adverts for companies such as
Optus and
Nesquik, and had several minor roles in episodes of Australian television shows including
Hey Dad..!,
A Country Practice, and
Police Rescue. While residing in
Glenhaven, she attended
the Hills Grammar School in neighbouring
Kenthurst, from kindergarten until Year 11. At the age of thirteen, Goodrem recorded a five-song
demo CD, financed through her television work. It was sent to the
Australian rules football club
Sydney Swans (of which Goodrem is a supporter) and they passed it onto talent manager
Glenn Wheatley. Wheatley signed Goodrem to an
artist development deal with
independent record label, Empire Records. Between June 1999 and September 2000, Goodrem worked with producers Paul Higgins and Trevor Carter on thirteen tracks for an album to be called
Delta. Most of the tracks were written by Carter, although Goodrem co-wrote two and self-wrote the song "Love". Goodrem did a photoshoot for the album (some of the photos have surfaced), and recorded a home-made style
music video for the song "Say" which has since leaked onto the internet. and began work on an album of pop–dance songs including the unsuccessful debut single, "
I Don't Care", which peaked at number sixty four on the
ARIA Singles Chart in November 2001. The piano-based
ballad "
Born to Try", co-written by
Audius Mtawarira, premiered on the show and reached number one on the ARIA Singles Chart and the New Zealand singles chart, and number three in the UK. "Born to Try" was certified triple Platinum in Australia for sales of over 210,000 copies. Goodrem's role on the show scored her a
Logie for "
Most Popular New Talent" at the
Logie Awards of 2003. In January 2003, "
Lost Without You" topped the ARIA Singles Chart and reached number four in New Zealand and the UK. it was certified double platinum for sales over 140,000 copies in Australia. and sold 1.2 million copies in Australia, and over 4 million worldwide. The album also charted highly in the UK, peaking at number two. The album's third single "
Innocent Eyes" again reached number one on the ARIA Singles Chart and number nine in the UK. It was certified Platinum in Australia for sales over 70,000 copies. It was certified Platinum for sales over 70,000 copies. Later that month, Goodrem won seven
ARIA Music Awards, including "Best Female Artist", surpassing
Natalie Imbruglia's previous record of six awards in 1999. As she was too unwell to perform at the ceremony herself, singer
Darren Hayes performed a rendition of "Lost Without You" as a tribute, bringing an overwhelmed Goodrem to tears. Her first full-length DVD
Delta became the highest-selling music DVD by an Australian artist in Australia ever, with a certification of 11× platinum. The Australian-only release "
Predictable" became her fifth consecutive number one on the ARIA Singles Chart in December and was certified double Platinum for sales of over 140,000 copies. When Goodrem and her family disapproved of the album's release, a
lawsuit was filed. Goodrem's lawyers claimed the album was made up of unfinished
demo recordings which were not fit for commercial release. In October Goodrem launched her own lingerie line titled "Delta by Annabella". Goodrem's second studio album,
Mistaken Identity, was released in Australia on 8 November 2004 and debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums chart. It was certified five times platinum for sales of 350,000 copies. The album spent 46 weeks in the top fifty. It also reached number seven in New Zealand, and peaked at number 25 in the UK. The album's lead single, "
Out of the Blue", which was co-written and produced by
Guy Chambers, was released prior to the album on 8 October 2004. "Out of the Blue" debuted at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart and number nine in the UK. This was Goodrem's sixth straight number-one single in Australia. It was certified platinum in Australia. The second single, "
Mistaken Identity", released as a single only in Australia, debuted at number seven and was certified Gold. "
Almost Here", a duet with Irish singer and then boyfriend
Brian McFadden of
Westlife, was released as the third single and reached number three in the UK and became her seventh ARIA number one, along with her first number one in Ireland. It was certified platinum in Australia. , Australia, 2005 In March 2005, Goodrem starred in her first film role in
Hating Alison Ashley, a film based on the
1984 children's novel by
Robin Klein, with Goodrem acting the title character. The film performed poorly at the box office and was not a critical success, with some critics citing Goodrem's performance as too robotic and detached. April 2005 saw Goodrem relocate to New York to launch her career in the United States with a reworked version of "
Lost Without You". She appeared in the last two episodes of the short-lived American series
North Shore in a bid to gain greater exposure. "Lost Without You" peaked at number eighteen on the
Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. In July, Goodrem embarked on her first headline
concert tour of Australia,
The Visualise Tour, performing to 80,000 people across ten shows.
The Visualise Tour: Live in Concert was released in November and became Goodrem's second number one DVD. On 15 March 2006, Goodrem performed a new song, "
Together We Are One", at the
Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in front of 80,000 spectators and up to 1.5 billion television viewers worldwide. The song, written specifically for the event, was released in Australia, where it peaked at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart. In June 2006, Goodrem signed to Modest! Entertainment for her worldwide management. In October 2006, Goodrem promoted in Japan with the release of an updated version of
Innocent Eyes and the Japan-only single "
Flawed", which reached number one on the Japanese download chart. The album peaked at number eight on the Japanese international chart (excluding Japanese artists) and number nineteen on the official Japanese album chart (including Japanese artists). In November, Goodrem appeared with
Westlife on the British reality television music competition series
The X Factor to perform a duet titled "
All Out of Love", which appeared on the boy band's seventh studio album,
The Love Album. She was in Melbourne on Christmas Eve to headline the annual
Carols by Candlelight.
2007–2010: Delta in
Melbourne, Australia, 2007 Goodrem's third studio album, the eponymous
Delta, was released in Australia on 20 October 2007. Goodrem described the material as "...a lot lighter" compared to her previous album
Mistaken Identity. She has also stated, "As people become more aware of your life, they can pinpoint what songs are about. On this album, I've tried to remove a lot of that and just write great pop songs, songs that are from my heart but there's no baggage with them". The album debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, making it her third number one album in her home country. It eventually was certified 3× platinum in 2008. In New Zealand, the album debuted at number twelve on the
RIANZ Albums Chart. On 10 August 2007, Goodrem was in
Los Angeles to film the music video for the album's lead single "
In This Life", which is also the opening theme for the Japanese
anime television series
Deltora Quest, based on the
book series by fellow Australian
Emily Rodda. The video premiered on 31 August on
Sunrise. "In This Life" was officially released on 15 September. It debuted at number one on the
Australian Singles Chart, becoming Goodrem's eighth number-one single in Australia. It was certified platinum. The second single, "
Believe Again" was released on 10 December. It debuted and peaked at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified Gold. The third single, "
You Will Only Break My Heart", was released on 29 March 2008 and peaked at number fourteen. The fourth single to be lifted from the album was "
I Can't Break It to My Heart", which debuted and peaked at number thirteen. In 2008, Goodrem focused on promoting music in Japan and the United States. She released "In This Life" on 23 January in Japan. She followed that up by releasing "Delta" on 20 February. The album peaked at number eight on the Japanese international chart and number 39 on the overall chart. The album sold almost 5,000 copies in its first week, 1,000 copies more than her previous album in Japan and overall sold over 30,000 copies in Japan. In the United States, Goodrem released "In This Life" on 15 April 2008. "In This Life" was released to US radio on 9 April. It was first released to the Triple A radio format, and then to the Adult Contemporary and Hot Adult Contemporary formats. On 17 June 2008, Goodrem appeared for the second time on any
Billboard chart with the single, debuting at number 40 on the
Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks chart. The song later peaked at No. 21. According to
Nielsen SoundScan, the track sold 7,000 digital downloads in the week ending on 24 June 2008. The song also charted at number 20 on the Hot Adult Top 40 Recurrents. The album was then released on 15 July 2008 in the United States and Canada under the label
Mercury Records. It peaked at number 18 on the US
iTunes Store. It later debuted at number 116 on the US
Billboard Album Chart and No. 1 on
Billboards Top Heatseekers with sales of 6,000 copies. Overall the album sold over 21,000 copies in the United States. In July 2008, Goodrem announced her second national tour of Australia, the
Believe Again Tour. She originally announced nine dates in seven cities, but later announced more shows, performing 14 in eight cities. The tour ran from 9 January to 4 February 2009. A concert DVD of the tour was released on 18 September 2009. It peaked at number one on the Australian
ARIA DVD Chart and was certified Gold for sales over 7,500 copies. Goodrem also recorded a duet, "Right Here with You", with the
Olivia Newton-John to help raise money for Newton-John's cancer hospital in
Melbourne. Goodrem was nominated for two awards at the
ARIA Music Awards of 2008 – Highest Selling Single and Highest Selling Album – and won the award for Highest Selling Album of 2008. At the
2008 World Music Awards, held on 9 November in
Monaco, Goodrem received her third
World Music Award for World's Best Selling Australian Artist. In March 2010, Goodrem and
Guy Sebastian were chosen by the Jackson estate to perform at the Australian launch of ''
Michael Jackson's This Is It'' DVD. The invitation-only event was attended by the film's director
Kenny Ortega, Jackson's choreographer
Travis Payne, and Jackson's brother
Jackie Jackson. Goodrem and Sebastian performed "
Earth Song".
2011–2014: Child of the Universe and The Voice On 24 November 2011, Goodrem was confirmed to be a part of the judging panel of the
Australian version of
The Voice which aired in early 2012, coaching alongside
Keith Urban,
Joel Madden, and
Seal. Some of Goodrem's decisions on the show sparked criticism, with comments she was "all style" and "little substance".
Rachael Leahcar was Goodrem's contestant in the final four. This was after Goodrem chose Leahcar over Glenn Cunningham, who was Goodrem's
backing vocalist on her Believe Again Tour in 2009. Leahcar finished third. Goodrem returned for
season two in 2013, again with Madden and Seal, with
Ricky Martin replacing Urban. Goodrem's finalist for season two was Celia Pavey who also finished third. On 30 March 2012, Goodrem announced the release of her new single, "
Sitting on Top of the World". The song debuted and peaked at number two on the ARIA Singles Chart and was certified double platinum. It also peaked at number twenty-three in New Zealand and was certified Gold. The album's second single, "
Dancing with a Broken Heart" was released on 10 August 2012. It debuted and peaked at number 15 on the ARIA Singles Chart. The third single, "
Wish You Were Here", was released on 12 October 2012. It debuted at number seven on the ARIA Charts and later peaked at number five, and was certified Platinum. Goodrem's fourth studio album,
Child of the Universe was released on 26 October 2012, which debuted at number two on the ARIA Charts and spent ten weeks in the top 50. It was certified Gold in its second with for sales of 35,000 copies. Along with the release of the album, Goodrem embarked on her tour, "An Evening with Delta: The Top of My World Shows", which supported the album release with a series of stripped-back shows, starting in
Brisbane on 27 October then two
Sydney shows on 31 October 2012 and 2 November 2012 and finishing with Melbourne on 7 and 8 November 2012. Rachael Leahcar was the tour's opening act. Goodrem was featured on the album
The Spirit of Christmas 2012, singing "
Blue Christmas". In November, she also recorded a Christmas EP titled
Christmas. It was released on 14 December 2012 in Australia and New Zealand. On 1 February 2013, it was confirmed that Goodrem had signed with US manager
Irving Azoff. Goodrem performed at the
Mardi Gras in Sydney in March 2013. She performed dance version of some of her songs including "
Born to Try", "
Lost Without You", "
Predictable", "
Believe Again", "Child of the Universe" and "
Sitting on Top of the World". In May 2013,
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu joined Goodrem for a special performance of "Bayini" on
The Voice Australia, in celebration of
National Reconciliation Week. The song was later released on
iTunes and debuted at number four on the ARIA Singles Chart on 10 June 2013. On 17 June 2013, Goodrem released her new single "
Heart Hypnotic", which she also performed on the live finale of
The Voice. Goodrem celebrated 10 years since releasing her multi-platinum studio album
Innocent Eyes which topped the Australian ARIA Charts and reached number two on the
UK Albums Chart by releasing
Innocent Eyes: Ten Year Anniversary Acoustic Edition on 29 November 2013, which debuted and peaked at number 22 on the ARIA Albums Chart. On 26 November 2013, it was announced that Goodrem would not be returning to
The Voice Australia for the third season in 2014 but instead chose to be a part of the new Australian version of
The Voice Kids. Goodrem revealed on her
Twitter account that the decision was made because this would give her more time on her music career and more time to work on her new studio album. The show premiered on 22 June 2014 and finished on 10 August. Goodrem was a coach alongside
Joel Madden, who teamed up with his brother
Benji Madden, and
Mel B. Goodrem coached eventual winner
Alexa Curtis. Goodrem attended the
2014 AACTA Awards where she performed "
Kissing You" in tribute to
Baz Luhrmann's film
Romeo + Juliet (1996). Goodrem joined the Australian and New Zealand leg of
Andrea Bocelli's Passion for Life Tour in September 2014. To celebrate being part of the tour, Goodrem released a cover version of
Martika's 1991 single "
Love... Thy Will Be Done" on 12 September 2014.
2015–2019: Wings of the Wild It was announced on 13 January 2015, that Goodrem was returning as a judge
The Voice Australia for the show's fourth season. She was reportedly paid
A$2 million per season after negotiating an increase from her initial $800,000. Goodrem continued to return as a coach yearly through the
ninth season in 2020. Goodrem won both the 2016 and 2017 editions of the show with her artists
Alfie Arcuri and
Judah Kelly, respectively. Goodrem's single "
Only Human" was released on 13 March to coincide with her return as
Nina Tucker for
Neighbours 30th anniversary. She returned for three episodes starting from 16 March. Goodrem also appeared in a documentary special celebrating the anniversary titled
Neighbours 30th: The Stars Reunite, which aired in Australia and the UK. She joined the Australian leg of Ricky Martin's One World Tour in April as his supporting act. She also revealed that she has been working with
DNA and
Jon Hume. On 24 July 2015, Goodrem released "
Wings" as the lead single from her fifth studio album
Wings of the Wild. The song peaked at number one on the ARIA Charts and was certified double platinum. Goodrem also promoted the single in New Zealand and the UK. From October 2015 to February 2016, Goodrem made her musical theatre debut playing
Grizabella in an Australian version of
Cats. She performed the role in the Sydney, Hobart, Melbourne and Brisbane legs of the show. "
Dear Life" was released on 6 May 2016 as the second single from
Wings of the Wild. The single debuted and peaked at number three on the ARIA Singles Chart and was later certified Platinum. "
The River" was later released with a story music video for the tour in September 2016, while she was in New Zealand. She toured
Wings of the Wild in Australia in October and November 2016. Goodrem made her return to television on the 2017 comedy drama series
House Husbands. In 2017, she became the
V8 Supercars Australia ambassador, promoting the sport and being the official performer at the racing events throughout the year. In 2017, an advertisement for
Apple Music featuring Goodrem was criticised by the
Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) for promoting unsafe driving. Complaints about the video to the bureau stated that it "does not promote safe driving" and features Goodrem placing her head and arms outside a moving a vehicle and "moving around in a motor vehicle with no clearly visible safety belt". In response to the complaints,
Apple Inc. said that it felt "confident" that the advertisement did not breach the
Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) Advertiser Code of Ethics standards and saw no issues relating to car safety, with both individuals in the car wearing lap seat belts. The ASB said that people may not realise that vintage cars are fitted with lap seatbelts which are not clearly seen in the video. The advertisement was pulled from screening and would not re-air until Apple re-edited it with all parts featuring Goodrem's arms and hands outside of the car window removed. On 15 February 2018, Goodrem released a single, "
Think About You", which was also released for streaming and download on her website on 16 February 2018. The song was written by Goodrem in collaboration with songwriters Julian Bunetta and John Ryan. "Think About You" is described as being a "feel good, upbeat song with an irresistible catchy groove", yet is also noted for its cheeky sexualised lyrics that earned it to be called a "sexy upbeat banger" by reviewers. Goodrem reinvented her look which included colouring her hair darker for this promotional video. Goodrem played
Olivia Newton-John in the Newton-John biopic called
Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You and released a covers soundtrack album called
I Honestly Love You in May 2018.
2020–2022: Bridge over Troubled Dreams In January 2020, Goodrem released a charity single, "
Let It Rain", in aid of the
2019–2020 bushfires in Australia. She was inspired to write "Let It Rain" after seeing the devastation from the bushfires across Australia. She teamed with
Apple Music, Sony Music and
iHeartRadio for the release. All proceeds went to aid
Red Cross bushfire relief. Goodrem released the singles "
Keep Climbing" and "
Paralyzed" in May and July 2020, respectively. Additionally, she announced the
Bridge Over Troubled Dreams Tour of Australia and New Zealand, scheduled to begin in March 2022. She had to cancel the New Zealand portion of the tour for
COVID-19 related reasons on 2 March 2022. Goodrem officially started the tour in March 2022 and at the Brisbane performance some of it was recorded for a Red Cross appeal (Australia Unites: Red Cross Flood Appeal) It was received well and called "simply Delta Goodrem's best tour yet. She's taken elements of things she's learnt from every tour in the past, and curated a night full of euphoric highs and big singalong's for pop fans who've been longing to be inside an arena together again". She then took the tour to Europe in October 2022 for sold-out shows in the UK and Germany. On 12 November 2020, with no prior announcement and despite teasing an album of original material, Goodrem released her sixth studio album and first
Christmas album,
Only Santa Knows. To support the album, Goodrem announced her own Christmas special
Christmas with Delta, which aired on
Nine Network on 12 December. She did a second show in 2021 set in
Luna Park Sydney for the deluxe edition re-release of the project She did a third concert with a tribute to
Olivia Newton-John in 2022. In early 2021, Goodrem announced the release of her seventh studio album
Bridge over Troubled Dreams for May of that year, alongside an autobiographical and photographic book bearing the same name. Throughout Australia's COVID-19 response, Goodrem spent most of 2020 and 2021 doing The Bunkerdown Sessions, a livestream concert series for fans through her
Instagram and Facebook pages. In December 2021, Goodrem took issue with an Instagram post by
NSW Health, who later apologised, that used her image with two needles pointing at her head to personify the
Delta variant in an effort to advertise the booster vaccine. In June 2022, Goodrem announced she was opening for the
Backstreet Boys on the second North American leg of their
DNA World Tour. On 28 July 2022, Goodrem made a brief appearance as Nina Tucker in
Neighbours: The Finale. On 24 September 2022, Goodrem joined English singer
Robbie Williams at the
2022 AFL Grand Final to perform his
Kylie Minogue duet "
Kids".
2023–present: Going independent and Eurovision On 18 July 2023, Goodrem announced her new single, "
Back to Your Heart" would be released on 4 August, under her own record imprint, ATLED Records. This marked the end of her music contract with
Sony Music. In August and September 2023, Goodrem embarked on her Hearts on the Run tour, her first headlining tour of Europe. As part of the tour, Goodrem performed shows in England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In September she returned to Australia to embark on a 20th anniversary tour for her debut album
Innocent Eyes. On 28 September 2023, Goodrem starred as the lead role in the
Netflix film,
Love Is in the Air, shot in
Queensland's
Whitsunday Islands. In its first two weeks, the movie had been streamed 20 million times. In April 2024, she released a further single "Hearts on the Run", and in June, returned to the UK and Ireland to support
Shania Twain and perform at London's Mighty Hoopla festival. In April and May 2025, she performed shows in Sydney and London to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her second studio album
Mistaken Identity. On 1 March 2026, it was announced that she would represent
Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Eclipse". The single was released on the same day. ==Personal life==