The Life Of Bryony - Delta Goodrem: “Losing My Voice Was the Moment Everything Was Washed Away Off the Bone”
Episode Date: June 9, 2025MY GUEST THIS WEEK: DELTA GOODREM This week, I’m joined by singer, songwriter, and Australian icon Delta Goodrem—whose career began in her teens, soared with chart-topping hits, and then took a s...hocking turn. Diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at just 18, Delta was forced to step away from the spotlight just as her music was going global. We talk about what it’s like to lose your voice—literally. In her thirties, Delta underwent surgery that left her unable to speak, let alone sing, forcing her to re-learn how to communicate. We talk about the strength it takes to survive something like that not once, but twice—and how both of those moments reshaped her sense of self. She tells me about the viral Beyoncé concert clip that turned her into a meme—and why it ended up being one of the most liberating moments of her life. LET’S STAY IN TOUCH 🗣 Got something to share? Text or send a voice note on 07796657512—just start your message with LOB. 💬 Use the WhatsApp shortcut: https://wa.me/447796657512?text=LOB 📧 Prefer email? Drop me a line at lifeofbryony@dailymail.co.uk. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who might need a boost of Delta’s energy—it really makes a difference! Bryony xx BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE 📚 Bridge Over Troubled Dreams by Delta Goodrem A deeply personal memoir exploring music, healing, and finding your voice. CREDITS 🎙 Presenter: Bryony Gordon 🎙 Guest: Delta Goodrem 🎧 Content Producer: Jonathan O’Sullivan 🎥 Audio & Video Editor: Luke Shelley 📢 Executive Producer: Mike Wooller 🛠️ Studio Manager: Sam Chisholm A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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This episode of The Life of Bryony is sponsored by Asda, celebrating 60 years of great family
value. That's Asda Price.
This week on The Life of Bryony, what would you do if you lost your voice completely? One day you're performing on stage, the next you can't even order a coffee.
That's exactly what happened to Delta Goodrum.
And in this episode, she opens up about the cancer diagnosis that stopped her world at 18
and the surgery that stole her voice in her 30s.
Plus the long painful road to finding herself again,
off stage and out of the spotlight.
How do you all of a sudden go from planes, trains
and automobiles to then this is now your life
that you're in the fight?
It's a story about resilience, survival
and having to start over again.
My chat with Delta Goodrum right after this.
Then my chat with Delta Goodrum right after this. This is a paid advertisement from Asda.
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Are we starting recording? Because I'm just going to start with this, like, and this is
not, don't worry, Delta, this is not the way the podcast is going to go. But I just can't
imagine what it must be like to be actually able to sing, to open your mouth and just
beautiful sounds come out like they just did from your voice. Delta Gudrum, welcome to
the podcast.
Thank you very much. I think, you know, I love the
expression of it and, you know, it's a craft that I'm grateful to get to be able to do
and have a sing with people. And when it's all, when you feel completely in the zone
of heart, mind, soul, lyric, concept, the song is of energy that you're feeling in that
moment, that's all awesome.
Do you remember when you first realized you could sing?
I loved music. I just loved the sounds. I didn't have a musical household. So it wasn't
like there was a lot of music being played. It was a natural gravitation for me. And my
parents, they only played a couple of records, Joe Cocker, John Varnham, Dive
Bunny and basically.
Very like very 80s 90s.
It is exactly.
So I kind of just started finding my way from piano and I was going to singing and dancing
schools and active like sports and I found a passion for music.
And one of my key memories was we'd gone to Fannam with
the opera and my mum had taken me.
It was my first ever theatre show, my first big musical that I'd ever seen.
I was on the street and I was going, think of me, think of me fondly.
I remember my parents looking around at me and going, huh.
I remember thinking, yeah, this is something I feel like.
I remember a visceral memory of being you know
Eight or something or seven and my parents turning around and me looking up at them and thinking yeah, they know now
This is this is this is it. This is it. This is on this is my choice
I'm choosing this and here we are
Celebrating over 20 years in the music business. I want to get onto that first
We ask everyone who comes into Life of Brian
to bring an object that makes them feel at home.
And Delta, you have bought, I don't know what's going on.
You're just gonna have to explain this to me.
I brought a couple things because when I heard the mission
and I thought, well, I'm going to share with you
the three things that I feel when we are on the road,
like when we were on last year on Shania Twain tour, you're going to hotels you never know.
When we were with the Backstreet Boys a couple years ago and we were touring all around the
States, my other half and I realized if we have these three things in any hotel room in the world,
whether it's a very questionable hotel that we found in the middle of nowhere,
or whether it's an extremely fancy hotel that we have been blessed with in this
moment.
If we have the Apple TV with us and I can watch any show anywhere in the world,
any country.
She's bought her Apple TV. I bought it in more years.
I'm really, you,
you understood the assignment and you took it on and I am impressed.
And if we were to plug this in, what would we be watching right now?
What would you want to like sit down and?
I mean, when it's just me to kind of zone out, I really enjoy my reality TVs, my sort
of very zone out, nothing that just comedies, rom-coms, Disney Plus. I'm very, something very, yeah, very relaxed
and kind and calm on the TV.
Or Seinfeld every night before we go to sleep.
Okay.
Just go to Seinfeld.
Okay.
And then we have, as long as we have a nice Aesop
with us as well, which is Australian brand.
Yeah, Aesop.
Oh, is it Australian?
It's Australian.
Do you know what they do, which I think are brilliant? Tell me. Which they don't look, Aesop. Oh, is it Australian? It's Australian. Do you know what they do, which I think are brilliant?
Tell me.
Which they don't look very Aesop.
Like, Aesop, there's an Aesop store near where I live, and it is like, I don't know why it's
near where I live, because it's like the chicest thing ever.
It's so beautiful.
And they sell this thing called Poo Drops.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Post-poo drops.
Yep, yep, yep, yep.
And you literally dip them in the loo, and's like a new, a new, and I thought that
was what you were going to bring out.
No, no, it's just body cleanser. It's just body cleanser. That would be a unique choice
to bring in, but no.
She's really, she's really understood the mission of this podcast. No shame, no filters.
No, I only brought a little one just to show you.
Because then when you know in the showers, I think it's just a nice like the smell,
the smell is familiar.
The smell is sensory, visual, sensory and then you know and then our candle.
And that is a biredo.
We can be in the middle of nowhere at a hotel that you know is you know trying to fit all
your luggage in or anything and as long as I have those three things, candle going, the Apple TV's on and you have your nice sort of hand
washers or you're set anywhere you go.
Oh my god I love this.
So I'm sharing my total, that's my survival kit on the road of living out of home and
in suitcases, travelling, doing music everywhere.
So and that leads me firmly into, that's your survival kit, a survivor, a fighter.
Yes, you are a fighter, Delta Goat Room. Absolutely. You don't sell as many records as you have or
record as many albums as you have if you're not a fighter. Yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely.
There's this quote, because I read you wrote a book in 2018, Bridge Over Trouble Dreams. Yes.
And in it you spoke about someone telling you when you were diagnosed with cancer when you were 18,
someone said to you, this change is a good change.
Like all changes are.
Yep.
And that's quite a profound thing and quite a difficult thing I imagine to hear
when you're newly diagnosed with cancer, but it
sort of seems to me encapsulate your attitude towards life.
For sure.
I think that, you know, I don't live in any one moment.
Like I do truly believe in sort of living in the here and now and working hard at letting
go of anything that's holding you onto being in the here and now. And I am so proud to be in this space now,
but to dive into that chapter,
because there are so many people going through so much.
So I've always been an open spirit to talk about
going through cancer or having the diagnosis,
because you know somebody listening
is in the fight right now.
And when you are going through a fight,
you are looking for community,
and you are looking for people who are understanding what is behind that curtain and it's not such a
veil of mystery to someone, you know.
It's frightening.
And of course, of course.
I mean, I was 18 years old and I had just gotten to know you all over here in the UK
and I had just broken into the charts and I was…
Life was just really getting started.
It was just getting started and it was truly lightning in a bottle to have Innocent Eyes
do what Innocent Eyes did and go into people's homes like that.
I truly love that and one day we'll get to play that album top to bottom, but as fate
had it, I'd done Shepherd's Bush on a new tour at the same time as my first ever show
was here.
We were doing the anniversary of Innocent Eyes at the same time.
So we kind of had to skip that.
We had to skip that album.
But we brought what we did at the Sydney Opera House
with mistaken identity here this week with Hackney.
And that was just so awesome.
We're very lucky to.
No, it's been too long.
And I'm so fired up and so grateful
for the incredible people over in this country
that have taken me into their homes
and like held my music here.
It's just been honestly just an incredible new beginning, right?
But as you said, you know, having those very abrupt changes and very sudden changes of
where you think you're heading one way and then life says we're resetting again has had
a lot of part of my journey.
I'm hoping I feel like I'm going into a new, like you were saying, cycle breaker. And I've worked hard at breaking
this cycle of whatever that was, of thinking mentally that I'll keep getting stopped every
time good things or, you know, kind of keep rolling in. So I think I've, I think I've
had to work hard at sort of finding that let go and surrender and love for not
trying to.
Life is, you know, you have to walk the path and it's going to, these things, you know,
it doesn't discriminate against what you're doing in life.
It says we're going to look after health now.
So I want to go back right to the beginning.
Let's do it.
Should I take off my jacket then?
It's quite hot in here.
It's quite warm.
I'm so sorry.
I would prefer my outfit with it, but frankly it's just too warm.
We're trying to recreate Australian...
Is that what you're doing for me?
...winter's...
We could also get rid of this little cold.
So I actually, you know, let's sweat it out in here.
Let's sweat it out, my friend.
It's like classic.
It's like we can't even give you warm weather in the UK without also giving you hay fever forward slash making
you feel like you've got the flu.
It's totally fine.
So what I didn't know about you, because I feel like I have, I thought I knew a lot about
you.
I thought, you know, I knew about your illness and I knew about, you know, like just I followed
you.
But what I didn't know, and this is, this amazes me because I, you know, like I get
a bit like, you know, earlier, you said you had goose pimples on your arms because we were talking about feeling like we
were coming out of some periods of life. I feel when I read about your whole
life story I had sort of goose pimples on my arms because you were literally
born a fighter Delta. So my mum was sitting at the traffic lights and a car basically, it was quite stormy and
a car ran into the back of her car and pushed her into ongoing traffic when she was about,
I think, seven months pregnant.
And then, you know, basically went through many, many, many operations.
And then that was really sort of the first introduction.
Then obviously it was, they tried to keep me in as long as they could.
And then it was time to say, we're going to have to get out into the world now.
And it was early and both parents were, you know, it was very kind of traumatic
and very wonderful nurses and doctors and it took a long
time before I could actually be with mom and so it was a couple months actually
and then the nurse snuck me in and got to give cuddles with mom. It's amazing I
mean it's like and you wrote a song about it didn't you? Yes but I never felt like it
was my story to tell yeah so I only recently or well not recently on the
last album which I kind
of had a real cathartic moment of it was a lot more like let's start at the beginning,
how did we get here, let's take a moment. And I just wanted to find the more direct
side of me because I'd had kind of more abstract album than one before or a bit more ethereal.
And I started at the start and, I just sort of thought that was
my parents' part of their story. And I never really took it on or felt like that was, no,
hang on a second, I was a part of that. I may not remember. I was a part of that moment.
A big part of it. I mean, did they talk to you about, I mean, I guess that when we're
little, we are, life, like from when we were born, like I still kind of imagine life doesn't really
didn't really start until July the 5th 1980 when I was born.
Your parents didn't have any like other beautiful, romantic life.
Then all of a sudden that's when their life started too.
Yeah, but you know, like it is hard and I can see that now.
My daughter's 12 and I can see her doing this.
Like what do you mean?
Totally, I can see that now, my daughter's 12 and I can see her doing this, like, what do you mean? Totally.
I can imagine.
Yeah, just, you know, did they ever sort of talk about it in your childhood or I guess
it was just like they were just grateful you were okay?
Not really.
Yeah, I mean, they, I mean, I'd heard, you know, when you tell the stories, I remember,
I'd heard some of it, but I don't think I actually really heard it until maybe I was
taking this moment and then went, huh, mom, they'd always said you're premature.
You're a premature and early baby.
But that was kind of, yeah.
So you were literally born fighter.
Yes, yes, yes.
But we all are.
I mean, yes, I definitely,
I think that it's sort of as being a part of my music too.
So it's sort of being a part of that.
What I want to enforce to
the listener is never give up. So you don't come from a musical family at all, but you just,
like when you talk about music and what it does for you, like the piano, you said sometimes it's
like your soul's open wounds are healing through music. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think
sometimes you write the songs that you want absolutely, absolutely. I think sometimes you
write the songs that you want to hear yourself. Yeah. You know, you want to hear back, it's all
going to be okay or everything's, you know, tonight I believe again, like. So from a young age,
so your parents have got you listening to Jive Bunny. Yeah.
You know, with a little collector CDs where it had all the different volumes?
Yeah.
For some reason that's one of my core memories of, also because Dom founds me that my parents
had such a limited...
But also it's like, if you think about it, music space.
Yeah, our parents had tapes or not even CDs.
I remember my mum had like Johnny Hates Jazz, Jive Bunny, which would be like us only having
Baby Shark or something.
Yeah, exactly.
But you know what?
It kind of served me well though because I'll tell you why.
Because I wasn't exposed or overexposed to a lot of
music yet as an artist. So when I would go to the piano I wasn't sort of coming from
a place of oh like this and that I was just discovering it as a sound rather than as an
influence. So I kind of felt like my piano playing style had a very, I could find my own style very early on.
So you signed your first recording contract
when you were 15?
Mm-hmm.
That was young.
Yes, very.
What was that like?
I mean, it was wonderful.
It was such a special experience to be able to,
you know, it was a huge deal that was totally exciting.
And I was with Sony for all of my career and had incredible journey together. I mean, I don't want to dwell too much on negatives, but I do think it is all part of your sort of
narrative and story and your ability, your resilience, you know, to kind of like get through things. So you're 18 and you felt like a,
was it, you were just feeling kind of, what, run down or?
After being signed, I'd had a song out that didn't take the charts by storm.
But as fate would have it, and I had met an incredible songwriting partner that we ended up writing Born to Try together.
And then when that album started taking off and I was, yes, on Neighbours at the same time as
Right.
As music.
There's a lot to be going on.
Coming over to the UK and doing Top of the Pops on the weekend, which is just so,
you know, I should say that was just such an incredible, incredible show to get to do,
to come over. And so we'd started to, obviously,
it was hard to decipher between the work and
travel meets how tired I was.
Because I was recording and doing zoom-ins from,
not zoom at the time, but ISDNs,
to the US, to the UK,
and we would record the rest of the album at night,
these songs that I had written in between everything. I'd found a lump on my neck so I
thought you know I'm getting so tired all the time and I was my immune system
was kind of breaking down I thought I'm just gonna go to the gym to get like
fitter like I sort of thought maybe I'll get some more energy maybe I'm not
looking after my sort of my well-being as much.
It things, you know, I was doing 14 hour signings and it was a very magical moment that was
happening.
The album was staying at number one and this particular week it was my third number one
single.
The album was still number one and you know, I was about to fly to the US that week, and there was the front page of the paper
on the Sunday.
And then I basically just sort of knew that something was, I'd had some experiences where
I'd had a feeling and that dad had done some biopsies.
And then I was diagnosed at the same time as the world had just taken my music in.
And so it changed the trajectory and changed the completely, it wasn't a natural flow of,
you know, the natural trajectory of when you have music out or you go from a wonderful TV show and then keep moving forward.
It was a different story. I have my own story. And then I kind of went
into the stages of my how do we kick this and how do we get rid of it and my family
around me. The whole country was sitting at my door watching us to kind of go through
it best we could.
What was that like? Because you know, like that's, I mean, that sounds quite stressful
to me, you know, that being, A, being 18 is just bloody stressful at the best of times,
you know, without throwing in a huge music career and diagnosis of it's Hodgkin's lymphoma.
You know, those are, those are things that just, you know,
without any of those things, it's a big thing. And then you throw in the fact that everyone's
invested in you because your Dell's a good room and because you have this, you know,
this energy that you give off that people love and people have taken to. And what was
that like to be trying to process? I was probably processing it a little different then to what I am now.
But I feel that, you know, I was doing, we were all doing the best we could as a family
and in navigating that and to me taking on that, I understood that not everybody gets that same amount of support.
I was getting, you know, the papers were filled with well wishes and letters and it was-
You were getting messages from like Elton John.
The entire papers were just, you would move every page.
It was just a, it was a very unique moment in time because of the music and what was
going on as well as then, you know, this
just total U-turn and total trajectory change.
But all I was doing was focusing on my health after that.
It's not like I was thinking about, you know, I was dreaming about what it would be like
to get to perform and get to do these songs that now I wasn't going to get to do the tour.
I wasn't going to get to, this tour. I wasn't going to get to,
this was now very different. Everything was going to be very different. It was, you know,
I talk about in the in the Mistaken Identity show that we just did, like, it was an extraordinary
day. It was an extraordinary day. How do you, how do you all of a sudden go from planes, trains,
and automobiles to then this is now your life? It's the, you know, it's, you're in the fight.
Nothing else mattered.
Like it doesn't, nothing else mattered.
Like I didn't, you know, I've got a pretty good grounding
with my parents that, you know, it just meant that that's,
you just have to get healthy.
I was looking forward to getting out of it
and being back on the other side,
but probably would never have realized
how much things would change after it
and how you have to pull back together everything
and put yourself back together.
But in the moment, all you're focused on is
getting well.
Just every day, step by step.
And I always say you have to have something
to look forward to, you know?
If it's just going to flower power,
which was to go get a hot chocolate on the one day,
you know that you could be healthy that day,
then that's what you go and do.
And again, I talk about this,
because in the UK it's interesting
because it gets brought up so much more,
because I feel like at home,
you know, I've probably spoke,
I feel like Australians know my footprint
and my imprint so much.
They know more about you than you do.
That it's, yeah, more than I do.
So when I come here, I have to really go into my memory
because I feel like at the moment,
we're picking up where I left off.
So going over it feels a bit like raking over old ground.
Well, for me, because I feel like I've
gone through many, many challenges since.
Yeah.
But do I feel like it's always important to stay open to talking,
as I shared, because it's, you just never know. Yeah, I do. I'm always open when someone
wants to talk about it. But what I find interesting about being in the UK is that it's when we're
talking about this, I am having to sort of go back into my filing cabinet because it
is a very long time ago.
And also that's hard in itself because it's actually you're having to talk about dark
stuff.
But I don't see it as dark.
I really don't.
I see it as a triumph.
I'm here and I have been able to work very hard with that hospital ever since that day.
We have raised a lot of money together.
I have been ride or die to those people that saved me
for many years, whether it's we work so hard, my foundation, the Delta Grigori Foundation,
I have supported cellular therapy and cancer research. We raised over 120 million.
Since that day, I was diagnosed. So I can't look at that like it's dark. I look at it like,
life was like, well, let's make sure I can be of service. And I, I, I definitely believe that I don't want to live in it, but I do believe
I can be of service and also.
I'm so grateful for the calls that if I can shine some sort of, you know, strength
or love and light to those in it right now, again, I remember it like yesterday,
losing all my hair.
I remember like yesterday being sick all the time.
Of course, I remember how much it hurt, you know, just having chemo all the time.
But like I say, I feel that the beautiful thing in this moment is I guess it's happening
for a reason to go back into it so we can kind of pick up where we left off and keep
going into the here and now.
And I think that that's really special about being in the UK right now for me. This is a paid advertisement from Asda.
Joe, I'm not a natural in the kitchen. I panic when it gets to dinner time. I don't know where
to start. Can you tell me, have you always felt confident in the kitchen or did you have to learn to?
Listen, you're not alone. Many people struggle with this and I also used to find it really
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So Joe Wick's Meal Picks are a series of recipes that I've created to make food simple and
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They're created with kids in mind, but the whole family can enjoy them. Is that right?
Yeah. These are recipes that I've designed for the whole family to enjoy. They're simple.
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Which of Joe Wick's meal picks would you suggest someone like me cooks first to boost
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Tell me Joe, how do your recipes make people feel less intimidated? Is it their simplicity
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One thing I try and achieve is that I try and get people cooking and make it, you know,
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we're looking after other people. So actually, if I can make it quick and simple with few
ingredients then it's achievable and that is really the aim of the whole sort of as
the meal picks ideas I've got. Okay. So what about making mistakes?
Is there joy in making mistakes
and can cooking be forgiving and fun?
Listen, I'm always burning things.
I'm not a great chef, you know, I'm a cook,
but I'm not the best of cooks.
So I always say, look, it's okay.
There's a little bit of burn.
If it's a little bit charred, it's more flavor.
It looks, it might not look the most presentable,
but I think you got to be kind to yourself. And if you're someone who hasn't cooked, you can really learn to
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And by the end of the month, you've got maybe three or four recipes you've learned, and that's
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Are you enjoying the life of Briny? Of course you are. Make sure you follow so you never miss a goddamn episode.
Music, your voice, all of it.
Lively hoods.
Your livelihoods, yeah.
And in 2018, you had to have an operation which left you having to- Lose my speech. You lost your speech and you had to have an operation which left you having to...
Lose my speech.
You lost your speech and you had to learn how to...
Talk again.
Yeah.
Can't stop me now.
Chatting away.
Chatting away.
Well, I'm, you know, like...
But there is something like...
There is something deeply, profoundly...
Totally.
...challenging about having your voice taken away from you.
Yes, yes.
So the operation was on a salivary gland.
Was that sort of a throwback to before?
Yes, there was consequences.
And it just happened to take me at this moment that when a salivary gland has a calcium buildup
and it's like a stone and basically got stuck in the pipes.
That must have been painful.
It definitely was.
That's like, that's a challenge in itself.
It was a challenge in itself.
So like, good natured about all of this.
I mean, I'm sure it all happens for a reason and I do believe that in that particular challenge,
I think it was a really good reset.
I think that there was something very centering and shifting again,
because you have to go so quiet because obviously you can't.
Talking was extremely hard and I couldn't express myself,
or people couldn't understand when I was talking.
So that was a very surrendering moment and everything is kind of washed away off the
bone.
So I think that that was an interesting journey.
I was like, wow, this is a very interesting, I could understand a different layer of communication
that the understanding people who have communication challenges
or that there is all the different versions of that.
Talk about trying to look for community,
I was Googling every salivary gland option.
This particular one, no one was aware of.
I only shared it after the songwriting,
after I'd written about it,
and then shared my story in my own way.
I was really glad that it was a private one for me
because I kind of just need,
that would have been a bit too much for me.
To be happening in real time.
Yeah, I think I was protected on that one
because I feel like I just, I wouldn't have,
I don't know if I would have been as able
because you have to surrender to,
you don't know when a nerve's gonna come back.
Or if it's gonna come back.
So I needed some time and I had a beautiful, peaceful time
out at my family's home, out, I lived out of the city
in my family house and my beautiful partner was with me.
So, but that is, you know, you talk about having to,
having to sit in silence is not something many of us do,
especially nowadays. There's a lot of noise. There's a lot of noise. And I think even if we switch it all off, modern human is not very good
at sitting with themselves. Totally. Totally. And it's such a good reminder because it's actually
game-changing, getting away from the noise. I mean, we used to say, I was a coach on The Voice for like nine years, right?
Ten years.
And I always noticed a pattern with the winners.
They would always take themselves just a slight bit away, just get a
little bit of quiet around them.
They wouldn't go full out in their rehearsal, but they'd always, I guess
I remember one gentleman, Judah, who he was on my team, I guess I got to see
it from this particular space and I was watching him and he did all the traits of what was just removing
and getting silent and listening and I was like I think he'll win you know I
feel like he's kind of taking that space away from the noisiness of that first
introduction of when some of the artists come in they're like oh my god what is
this they got light they got all of this And then they sort of start to, you know, I think getting the quiet amongst
the noise is really hard and it's, you know, it's a very different world and it's exciting
for collaboration and for freedom in chat and all those things is wonderful. But it's
also important still to stay connected to our, our own mind, our own thought, our own hearts.
And I'm a really big believer in that. I've always had a very strong mind to be an independent
thinker. I'm not really swayed very easily. I have to really be presented good facts of everything
and be able to make my own mind. Because I also know what it's like to see snowball effects of
things go without you that aren't true,
or I've seen people, you know, I've kind of seen many of those stories happen,
and I feel that it's really important to stand strong in your own kind of spirit and heart.
Is that some of the other challenges that you faced in your career?
For sure.
Having to deal with the gossip, rumour, people saying shit that isn't true.
Yeah, I mean, when I was younger, I think I obviously felt that differently. Now I don't
really, nearly I'm water off a duck's back. When you're 19, 20 and I've experienced hero
and villain, I've experienced both. And you cannot sit there and have a career without
having both. You have to be able to ride the waves of both versions as long as your intention was from the right place,
of course. Do you think that's what marks it? Yes. If you have the right intention and you're in it
for the right reason, then you will ride those waves. Yes, absolutely. So Villain, this bizarre
moment when you went to a Beyonce concert. Yes, yes, yes. And you went viral, just dancing, basically.
And someone, I don't know if you wanna talk about it.
I'm definitely out for talking about it.
I'm like, because it's still a wild,
when you experiencing going viral
when you had no intention of experiencing that moment,
it is wild.
Okay, so let's take us back. So it's the year what?
I think it's 20 bit earlier. I'd say to 2013 or 14 maybe early days early days
I mean, I was already 10 years into my career, right? Okay, so maybe a bit more so I'm feeling a bit low
Yeah, it was like it was a it was just a
When we first started on the voice, it was a jug we first started on The Voice,
it was a juggernaut, right?
And when you've got a lot of strong alpha males in the seats,
and I was the only female.
Now, back then, this was another wave moment in life.
I want all people's dreams come true.
I'm doing me. I am always in my own lane,
wanting to be better than I was yesterday.
That's my ammo. I'm like, I can improve on that. I'll always in my own lane wanting to be better than I was yesterday. That's my ammo. I'm
like, oh, I can improve on that. I'll do that better tomorrow. I run in my own race against myself.
So for me, it was a perfect show because I am completely comfortable with what I do
and I want everyone to win up there. I'm like, do a great job, great thing. I'm emotional for people.
I feel people's, you know, and then if there's someone
that's a bit older that's on the show,
that's like, this is my last chance.
I feel every emotion that they got,
that every single version of that person
that would come on stage.
In those first couple of years, I'm 26 on the show.
Show has exploded.
It's huge.
And everybody in Oz is watching it. We had
Seal, Keith Urban, myself and John Adam. And the first year, it was kind of the first wave
of Twitter and a lot of intense comments. And I just had, that was just a, I'd experienced
it once before, but this was different again. This was like the new wave of tech. So this is the time when those shows,
like The Voice, The X Factor, they rule.
Like people would-
They ruled.
Yeah.
It was before streamers, people would sit down
of a Saturday evening or Sunday,
whenever the results show was or whatever.
Yeah.
And they would- It's awesome.
They would watch on the television
and then they would also watch on Twitter and all that. Who could come up with the most biting, funny, sort of like
pithy comment that will get liked? Yeah, yeah. This is the...
Yeah, it was full on. And there's a lot of love. It was just a micro magnified moment
in life. Those shows would just magnify if you move your foot that way
or if you move your hand that way. And I was a magnet for a moment on the show. And you
know, I was trying my best every time just to show up and smile and it was just character
building for a moment, you was just it was character building for a moment you know
it was character building. That is such a polite way of putting it. So anyway the pinnacle comes
where my girlfriend goes it's just been just been a little rough and she's gonna take you to the
Beyonce concert. I was like yes yes amazing we go and you know it's the stars are out. It's a beautiful night.
The songs are like everything's now it was in Los Angeles actually. Like everything's
gonna be great. Everything's gonna be fine. Everything's gonna be great.
And you know we had the records out. The records were doing it was just micro
again. I was having another moment of intensity on me. Which is fine.
Which is fine. I'm just learning how to sort of manage it.
But it's also fine if you're having a moment yourself
where you're feeling things are intense.
I was having a moment where this is rough.
This is a rough thing.
Get the umbrella out and just walk through the storm.
I know it would pass.
I knew it would pass.
I just had to still have my umbrella up, right?
You need to go and dance with your friends
at a Beyonce.
Let's go to dance at a Beyonce concert, right?
We've all been there.
So I'm thinking, I'm dancing.
It's a beautiful night, stars are out.
And there was a gentleman there.
I, you know, kept bumping me and I was like, oh, I'm so sorry.
And I was, you know, just moving over.
I was so happy that nothing was going to break my spirit this time.
Right.
I'm dancing and dancing and I'd notice a little bit of hostility, you know, just like, you know, every time Beyonce was on they would sit
down and every time that Jay-Z was on he'd stand up. It was like
quite a strong interesting energy that was going on. Anyway, I was like, gosh, it's a bit
rude and anyway, whatever, doesn't matter. We get home, I'm like, gosh, it's a bit rude. And anyway, whatever, it doesn't matter.
We get home, I'm like, what a great night.
Thank you to my girlfriend, Renee, who'd taken me
and one of my besties.
And I go to bed happy, happy as Larry, right?
What a great night.
I wake up, Briny, and I go like this.
I look at my phone, I'm like, hmm.
And I just start scrolling and scrolling.
I'm like, what the?
And it just, it's never ending when something like this happens, right? You're scrolling like, what the?
And it just, it's never ending
when something like this happens, right?
You're just like, what's happened?
I don't know what's happened.
And then I start getting scared
because I'm like, something's happened.
I don't know what's happened.
And then I look at my email and I see an email from my mom.
And my mom says, you know, dearest Delta,
everything's gonna be okay.
Don't worry about this, you know, Marlon Waynes,
everything's going to be all right.
And I was like, I don't know who this is.
What are you talking about?
What's happened?
And then I start Googling and I realized that, you know,
basically there was a picture and he had taken of me
behind with my hands up saying, you know,
saying some pretty derogatory comments
towards me. This is Marlon, can I say Marlon? Yes of course. Marlon Waynes. Yeah.
And he said something like, what was it about your wife? This unrhythmic white, you know, woman is, you know,
she thinks she's at an ACDC concert and just starts like just going at me, right? And at this point, my heart was just like,
I was just destroyed.
I was like, and then I see just, yeah,
all this kind of vitriol of this moment had kind of come to,
and I didn't cope well when I first saw it in the morning.
I was pretty upset, I can say.
I was crying and I was pretty upset. I can say I was
crying and I was just, I was extremely like, you know, having a very sort of, just because
it would be in a pylon and I just, and I hadn't, I never, you know, I wanted people's dreams
to come true. I had no, like, I just didn't have any, I was like, I was just dancing in my chair.
So I had this moment and I was like, God, after I got through the crime and got through
the, you know, sort of, all right, let's workshop this.
What am I going to do?
And I was sort of thinking, it's always humor.
I'm not a, I'm not a what was me kind of person.
I'm not a, I'm like, okay, all right,
let me take this on, what do we do?
And I love Seinfeld.
So I thought I'm gonna do the clip of Elaine
and put up that I had a blast last night.
So I put up a clip of Elaine that said,
had a blast last night, we love her,
and it was incredible.
The, basically the air from the balloon just went
and the internet and they were like Delta wins the internet today, right? So it was
kind of like the air went out straight away, the positivity went and flipped like this.
It was like watching a like a rain clouds, some sort of switch of photosynthesis or something
where he's going back up and just go shh shh shh and it just totally changed. Like oh good one good one. Obviously behind it I was extremely you know
just sort of just been a bit of a journey and then it just like gone but here's what I'd say about
them the magic of that. I had always been it had that little bit in me that was a little bit shy to
dance and that freedom that that moment gave me because like if someone keeps pressing
on a certain point where they're like you can't dance and you're like you know
what awesome now I could dance in the street I could dance right here I would
show you all my dance moves I have no fear when it comes to dancing, all because it was, I
had been completely, you know.
It's humiliated you in front of the whole world on the internet.
But you know what? That's, but thank you. That's what I'm saying. Thank you. How cool
is that? Now I could do an entire dance routine anytime in my shows. I love it. I'm ready
to go.
You seem like very, well, it really radiates off
you. Not that I'm like an aura reader, but I would like to be. But you. I love that.
I'd like to. But it's so colourful that I feel like it kind of looks like you are an aura reading.
I was like, I'm just going to throw in a free aura reading for every guest. Please do it.
Delta Goodrum. Your aura gives me, I get this sense with you,
you're like what I love.
Feel like for so many women,
the baseline is like self-loathing or insecurity.
And I just get this sense of you that you're quite,
you're like, no, I know my worth, I know my value,
and I know what I want.
And it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
Yeah, for sure.
And has it always been that way? Or is that something you've had to hone over years?
I think I have done a full circle to my, you know, my younger self was quite strong in
mindset.
But I think, you know, I've also navigated, you know, sometimes not being as strong within
myself, wished I could have heard my inner voice more.
I've gone through many ideations and versions
of every album I kind of look at
like it was very much an era and a chapter.
And when we're talking about the sort of
the going viral dancing moment,
Wings of the Wild was that moment.
You know, that was all kind of that sort of chapter
and there was this beauty in all of it too.
And so I sort of, I kind of move with right now,
we're having more fun than we ever have in my life,
because I think you let go of thinking
how anything should be or what it should be.
I have great love in my life.
And I think that that grounds me
and probably brought back more of myself
because I have a great love in my fiance.
And I think that he brought
yeah, I think that I think that that also brought a lot back to think you can kind of
when someone people in your life can bring more of yourself. And you're like, yeah, I
feel more me than I ever have. So this sort of when someone accepts you for you, and for
all bits of you, for sure, I think that it makes a big difference. I really do. Can we kind of end on that? Like, hopefully, no, by talking about Matthew. So, how did
you meet?
He is a musician, so a guitarist.
He's in your band?
Yes.
So, you're like, did you think he's cute and I'm going to hire him? Or did you think
he's good at the guitar, I'll hire him? you know, by coincidence, we get on really well.
No, actually, as Fate, again, I like that we've kind of jumped into 2016's chapter
in 17, 18, that sort of era, because I was doing, we were about to do an arena show and
my band was working on The Voice and And the timings were just getting,
I couldn't get any of the guys away from the set.
And so I needed a new band like today.
And as fate, somebody had called
and I had a couple of the players
and all of those guys are still with me.
And sort of there was a switch of the guards then
and Matt had come from Brisbane
and turned up super professional ready to go. But I did think I've got a smoking hot
guitarist.
So that was in 2016 and you've been together ever since?
Yeah, we became, we genuinely became friends first. I was still sort of on my path of like my own, just sort of, you know, sort
of still discovery and life and then we came together at the right time.
So you're 40 now.
Yes.
And I think this is a nice, you know, like I think for a lot of women, I definitely entering
my 40s has the era, so to speak, has been about wanting to be my own boss.
For sure, for sure.
Not wanting to run on other people's time.
And needing to, because I think so much of our lives as women is like, I have to achieve
that, I have to do this, I have to be in several places at the same time, or I have to, you
know, and I don't know, like, I can speak only for myself, but that sense of waking up and realizing I don't have to do that.
I can, I can be my own boss and I, it's my life.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
You know, if anyone's listening at home who wants to kind of take that step into doing
something a bit different as you
have, you know, where you've gone right, where I want to do my own label, I'm gonna...
What would your advice be?
I think that sort of that, you know, when we talk about sort of, you know, turning
40 or going into 40s, you know, when we were younger that was such a different,
it felt so different now that you're here, like, I'm just getting started, this
is like just getting started, just feeling like, you know, the engines are
running and you're excited for new chapters.
And I would just say, you know, move with your passion, move with what excites you
and move in that direction and do it with fairness and good people who believe in
your vision.
Yeah.
Find them, find them and do it together
because it's so much more fun when you're doing it together. Delce Goodrum, thank you so much.
Briony, thank you very much for having me.
A huge thank you to Delta. She was so honest, kind and open-hearted. If anything we talked
about helped you, please pass it on. But most importantly, take care and I'll see you next
time.