Delta Goodrem on new music, tour and this year’s controversial Voice win

Delta Goodrem has a message for all those who cried “rigged” when Guy Sebastian’s brother Chris won The Voice on Sunday.

Sunday’s Voice season finale was perhaps one of the more unusual upsets in Australian reality TV history: Chris Sebastian crowned The Voice’s season nine winner, as his brother, former Australian Idol winner Guy, sat in his coach’s chair cheering him.

Few had predicted Chris would go all the way to the end when he first auditioned for the show. But while the winner was publicly decided – viewers had voted for this result – some still cried foul, declaring the competition “rigged.”

Speaking to news.com.au a few days after the win, the show’s longest-running coach Delta Goodrem scoffs at the controversy.

“Listen, if my brother wins The Voice, then maybe we’ve got a problem. Then we should question it, but not when you’ve got a talent like Chris,” she says.

Chris Sebastian wins The Voice.

Voice veteran Delta.

Goodrem says she empathises with Sebastian’s rocky start as a Voice winner, offering him some simple advice: “You can’t look sideways. This is a new and wonderful chapter for Chris – to be signed to a label and to be able to pursue his dream. We’re all very happy for him. He sung beautifully throughout the whole show – there’s not much more to say.”

Another Voice season under her belt, Goodrem has done the near-unthinkable in 2020 by announcing a tour. All going well – wear a mask and wash your hands, people – her ‘Bridge Over Troubled Dreams’ tour will visit an arena near you in April 2021.

“It’s about the mentality of having something to look forward to in a challenging time; I completely believe in that. I said alright, I’m putting it out there: We’re going to be together next year. I’m keeping a positive mindset,” she says.

“And I started planning the tour the second I started making the record. This album is very much about the live performances; it’s all live instruments. I produced it, recorded it, wrote it from the piano, making sure there was a cohesive sound. There are some fun dramatic moments in these songs.”

Her latest single, Paralyzed, is a “Beatles-inspired” return to her roots: Classic Deltz.

When I looked at my most played artist of the last decade – it was The Beatles. I didn’t even realise I played them so much, but they’ve continuously been there. I didn’t realise how much of an influence they’d been.”

Goodrem has laid her influences bare in a mysterious google doc she’s shared with fans to give them an insight into the creative process behind the album.

https://t.co/7xxiT7K1DY

— Delta Goodrem (@DeltaGoodrem) May 14, 2020

I’m in the doc

— Delta Goodrem (@DeltaGoodrem) May 17, 2020

When @DeltaGoodrem posts in the doc 😮 pic.twitter.com/vFiWBSgoSa

— Tammi (@love_lightdelta) June 21, 2020

If I didn't think @DeltaGoodrem was the best already, her releasing a freaking Google Doc about her musical inspirations for her new album would convince me. [@HistorianMum turned me into a Google Docs junkie.] https://t.co/K99FJmY1CM

— Miss Christine (@mynameispurpose) May 14, 2020

“I’m a very visual person – every record I see images, I make a scrapbook. This time I figured I’d let everybody into my process, then they can feel part of the step by step creation of this album,” she explains.

Inside the doc: vintage photos of Nancy Sinatra, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks, all “very much” influences on this record.

One song you won’t hear? Think About You, a 2018 excursion into sexed-up, Spotify-friendly pop (sample lyric: “I think about you naked when I’m looking at you”), which gave her an easy top 20 hit.

“No, that’s not on the album,” she says firmly. “That was a stand-alone era. Now it’s about opening the gates to this new music, (music) which tells a real story.”

The song, I offer, felt like Goodrem briefly trying on another artist’s hat for three-odd minutes: “See? I can do this if I want to.”

“It definitely was. And I’m wearing a hat on the single cover! [Now] I’m not chasing anything, I really want to be the OG … back to the piano.

“I wanted to go back to what I do best.”

Delta: The new album “tells a real story.”

Delta Goodrem’s new single Paralyzed is out now. Tickets for her Bridge Over Troubled Dreams 2021 Australian tour are on sale now via Ticketmaster (Wollongong) and Ticketek (all other dates).