Delta Goodrem Mistaken Identity 20th anniversary concert review

Delta Goodrem’s sold-out Sydney show last night included a surprise celeb guest and an airing of a song she hates singing.

It’s hard to imagine a more successful debut than Delta Goodrem’s record-breaking 2003 first album Innocent Eyes: A 15-times-platinum smash that remains the second-best-selling album in this country by an Australian artist.

But real Delta heads, though, know she bested it with her follow-up.

Goodrem’s 2004 sophomore album Mistaken Identity built on the promise of her debut, delivering something deeper and darker, informed by her blossoming love life and the cancer diagnosis she received during her first flush of success.

Twenty-odd years later, the “difficult second album” gets its moment in the spotlight with two sold-out shows at the Sydney Opera House, in which Goodrem plays Mistaken Identity in full.

Released a day before her 20th birthday, the album is stacked with swirling, dramatic could’ve-been-singles: Electric Storm, The Analyst, Sanctuary, The Last Night On Earth.

All get an airing as Goodrem performs the song in order, starting with the eternal banger lead single Out Of The Blue, seguing into Hey Jude to make the song’s Beatles inspiration clear.

As ever, Goodrem is chatty between songs, and in a reflective mood as she casts her mind back to 2004 - a time of bad fashion sense and “sudden changes” in her life.

Specifically, learning she had cancer and needed immediate treatment at the same time as her debut album was number one on the charts and she was the biggest pop star in the country. She admitted it had been “emotional” revisiting the album 20 years on - “your brain starts to delete memories,” she says of the turbulent time.

Delta’s sophomore album Mistaken Identity.

Delta circa 2004.

Also slightly difficult: Committing to perform an album in full when you don’t love every track. Goodrem introduces the solid Guy Chambers co-write Miscommunication with a sheepish “let’s do the song I’m sure 90 per cent of you skip on the album. I don’t think I’ve listened to it since the day I wrote it, but I said I’d play the whole album...”

Elsewhere, some history has been slightly rewritten: Goodrem’s then-boyfriend Brian McFadden isn’t present to perform their #1 duet Almost Here - instead Cody Simpson has a night off from starring in Guys and Dolls nearby and makes a cameo appearance to perform with her.

The emotions continues on gentle ballads like Fragile and You Are My Rock, with Goodrem revealing that some of the doctors who treated her cancer were present in the audience.

But ever the crowd-pleaser, Goodrem had to end the night on a high - Mistaken Identity done and dusted, she returns to the stage after a quick change to deliver a rapid-fire medley of around 10 of her biggest hits. Ending the night barefoot on a piano raving to Believe Again, it’s clear she’s cast out any lingering demons that remained from that dark, difficult second album.

Delta Goodrem’s Mistaken Identity tour continues with another sold-out show at the Sydney Opera House tonight, before two shows in London next month.

Originally published as Delta Goodrem Mistaken Identity 20th anniversary concert review