Delta Goodrem: ‘I had to take what people threw at me’

It’s been 20 years since Delta Goodrem released her smash hit debut album. Now, she reflects on how the industry has changed and her “biggest challenge” entering the next phase of her career.

“When I first started, it felt like I could do anything: I wrote the album, I chose the songs, and no-one was questioning an 18-year-old because they had no idea what was on the way,” says Goodrem. Picture: Holly Ward for Stellar

It has been 20 years since Delta Goodrem released her debut studio album Innocent Eyes – which would become the second-bestselling Australian album of all time – at the age of 18.

Now, two decades on and in the middle of a European tour, Goodrem joins Stellar to take stock of the milestone, reflect on the advice she would give her younger self as she embarked on a dizzying new career, and celebrate what she calls a “full-circle moment” that has allowed her to relive her earliest music with new audiences. As the musician, songwriter, actor and Revlon ambassador says, “I feel like I’ve stepped into being the same girl I was when I started in the industry. I feel a fierce sense of freedom in my life to do what I love to do and to create with no boundaries and endless limits. Anything in this moment is possible – which is how I felt when I started”.

It has been 20 years since you released your first album Innocent Eyes in April 2003, which then topped the ARIA charts for 29 consecutive weeks, and you’re currently on a European tour to mark its 20th anniversary. As you reflect on this career milestone, can you tell us a bit about this point in your life?

I’ve just come offstage in Zurich. I’ve had three shows back-to-back in Cologne, Paris and now here. The energy from the crowd was insane. Every concert, everyone singing every lyric to every song... I’ve come off feeling an amazement at how the impact of Innocent Eyes started a connection from that day forward to 20 years later. My gratitude is always through the roof and reinforces the power of music. The walls around me have tour posters and they have videotapes of concerts lining the shelves – it’s incredibly inspiring. I’ll now head off to my tour bus to Germany.

“I didn’t get the honour of getting to perform that album when it came out, or celebrate its success, as I was spending so much time at [Sydney’s] St Vincent’s Hospital, instead,” says Goodrem. Picture: Holly Ward

What would most surprise your younger self about where you are at this moment in time?

Well, I stepped into music and the arts at a young age. I always prided myself on choosing a career every step of the way. In saying that, celebrating my debut album two decades later by doing a sold-out tour – and singing every song I wrote on that album – is extremely meaningful. As fate had it back then, I didn’t get the honour of getting to perform that album when it came out, or celebrate its success, as I was spending so much time at [Sydney’s] St Vincent’s Hospital, instead [Goodrem was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in July 2003, four months after the release of Innocent Eyes]. To say to my younger self, “You’ll get to celebrate and truly feel the impact and love from that album all these years later”? Now that surprises me.

Are the fears and challenges you faced at 18 still the same?

When you’re younger and singing at your local place or at school, it’s one thing. When you add in the next level and the next, where you’re a teenager dealing with a lot coming at you from many angles, and you want to do the best job performing but there are all these extra feelings you have to overcome, such as your heart racing with nerves, or that feeling of live TV – it’s an entirely different skill set. In the early days, it was [about] adjusting to so much energy coming at me, whether it be 14-hour in-store appearances; or the hard work and dedication it takes to have

a goal of a number-one album or single; or that very new feeling of realising it’s not just singing – you still have to be an athlete among it all. [It’s a] reminder that anything with your name on it, at the end of the day, is your decision. My biggest challenge, and probably it still is, is learning how to hold boundaries around myself. I don’t know how to not give my absolute everything to everyone, and that has always been a problem – and a strength – of mine.

Delta Goodrem appears on the cover of this Sunday’s issue of Stellar.

What wisdom or reassurance do you wish your older self, or someone else, could have given you in those moments of anxiety or pressure?

That it will start to get really, really fun when you surround yourself with like-minded people who love you for who you are. You can have an epic time. I always used humour with my friends to get through difficult times. We would just laugh along the way, and we still do.

Many years ago, the landscape used to be that you just had to take what people threw at you. People could wreak havoc on your reputation. I always had the mentality that “this too shall pass”, but people are lucky now that they can share the truth straight from themselves.

Is there a key lesson that has stayed with you? To constantly let go along the way. Let go of what you thought would happen, let go of moments that don’t serve you. I think of my story: for a moment, it looked like it would take the course of those before me – and those after me. I was signed to a music label young, I joined a fabulous TV series [Goodrem starred on Neighbours from 2002-2005 and returned for guest appearances in 2015 and 2022], and I had hits around the world. But my story wasn’t meant to take the trajectory many thought it would. Mine was my own, and happening in its own time, and I think that’s been a huge lesson for me to accept.

What was important to you at the start of your career? And what is important to you now?

I’ve always had the same value system and moral compass from the time I grew up. I was very clear on what I stood for and what I connected to. I cared about how I made people feel. I understood that in order to have a career, I had to write my own songs and have a vision for my craft. My parents taught me young to have a good work ethic and the ever-present sayings of, “It’s nice to be important but even more important to be nice.” Or “If it’s worth doing, then do it well” and “If you want something done, do it yourself.”

“Everything has been full circle this year. There’s something truly special about a full-circle moment,” says Goodrem. Picture: Holly Ward for Stellar

It doesn’t mean I didn’t get lost along the way, but my value system and my heart always stood for wanting to touch people’s lives through music and tell stories through the arts. I was always deeply moved by music; it hit every fibre of my body [and] it made me feel

so many emotions that speaking just couldn’t. It was important to me to share dreams with people around me. I grew up playing sport and I was always happy to be the captain of a team. This evolved in my life the same way, but the most important part is I’ve loved and believed the winning spirit was better shared.

My intention has always been the same: be the best you can be at what you do. I didn’t get into this to become famous – it’s purely a by-product of connection.

Even so, have you ever taken anything for granted? How quick time goes by. It really is true what they say about time.

Does it feel like it has been two decades?

Yes, it does. But everything has been full circle this year. There’s something truly special about a full-circle moment. I feel like I’ve stepped into being the same girl I was when I started in the industry for the first time. I feel a fierce sense of freedom in my life to do what I love to do and to create with no boundaries and endless limits. Anything in this moment is possible – which is how I felt when I started. My recent single, ‘Back To Your Heart’, has a lyric: “Get out of your head and into your heart.” One of the things I’m most proud of over time is my ability to evolve, to weather the different chapters of what it takes to have a career and to accept what you can’t control but to still have a deep feeling of what you know will come back around at some point.

“I’m allowing myself to feel the impact that album had and embrace its story. To me, it was a lifetime in one year, and I have lived many, many lifetimes since,” says Goodrem. Picture: Holly Ward for Stellar

I also feel like I’m finally able to accept the love of [Innocent Eyes] that people had in their lives. I was at home watching it be number one from a hospital bed. So to be here, better than ever, embracing the significance of the album I made that meant something to our culture in that time is truly a celebration. I’m allowing myself to feel the impact that album had and embrace its story. To me, it was a lifetime in one year, and I have lived many, many lifetimes since.

You’ve mentored others, particularly as a coach on The Voice Australia from 2012 to 2020. Who has helped you the most along the way? Sometimes it’s the most unexpected person who becomes an incredible mentor. I was very lucky to have wonderful guidance from some great men and great women on my path. I’ve also had incredible artists be guiding lights for me when I needed them the most – iconic artists who would take me on tour or guide me. I don’t care how many times I mention it, Olivia Newton-John was one of the most influential people in my life.

There’s a lot of talk about “seasons” or “eras” at the moment. What season would you say you were in at the age of 18, and which season are you in now?

When I first started, it felt like I could do anything: I wrote the album, I chose the songs, and no-one was questioning an 18-year-old because they had no idea what was on the way. I had a feeling, and it was nice to know that feeling was right. I had finished the ‘Born To Try’ demo – it was

a piano and vocal. I would listen [to it] in the car over and over again, trying to understand what it was that I was feeling. Life was about to change. It feels the same again in this moment: I’m going with my heart and I’m building something special, and I’m excited to share that with everyone. That feeling of life being cyclical is with me again, and I feel anything is possible.

The Innocent Eyes 20th Anniversary Tour kicks off in Australia on September 23 at the Sydney Coliseum Theatre then heads to capital cities. Visit deltagoodrem.com.

Originally published as Delta Goodrem: ‘I had to take what people threw at me’