DELTA FORCE

Stepping away from touring, television and work travel has given Delta Goodrem space to breathe and plan her next chapter. The prolific creative explains how her perfect present was shaped by the bold choices of her past

- RACHEL SHARP

It’s 1996 in Dural, way out in Sydney’s green pastoral west, and 12-year-old Delta Goodrem has just been presented a choice by her parents. She could save the money squirreled away during five years of doing television advertisements and sporadic child-actor gigs on shows such as A Country Practice, Hey Dad! and Police Rescue to eventually buy her own car. Or she could use it all to record a demo CD of the songs she’d written at her piano since the age of seven. “I picked the music,” recalls Goodrem with a laugh. “I remember finally getting behind the microphone after that and thinking, ‘I feel like Celine Dion right now. This is the best thing ever.’ ”

It’s a decision that every Australian knows paid off for the now 37-year-old award-winning performer. By the time Delta was old enough to drive, she’d landed the Logie-winning role of Nina Tucker on Neighbours and signed a prized deal with Sony Records. Her 2003 debut album, Innocent Eyes, topped the ARIA chart for 29 non-consecutive weeks and is the second-highest-selling Australian album of all time. Today, she’s second behind Kylie Minogue for the most number-one albums by a local female artist on the ARIA chart. (Goodrem has five to Minogue’s seven.) Just as well she didn’t listen to her adored younger brother Trent at the time. He wanted the car.