Unveiling The New Delta Goodrem

Emily Dunn Entertainment Writer

It was the red carpet debut of the new Delta - sexy, smouldering and all grown up. But try as she might, posing for photographers at the Opera House before a special preview concert last night, Delta Goodrem is no Pussycat Doll.

Three years after the release of her second album, Mistaken Identity, inspired by her experiences fighting Hodgkin's lymphoma, Goodrem proved she is still an Australian songbird darling.

She wore a voluminous purple coat, figure-hugging black dress and strappy heels to pose briefly and demurely for photos.

No questions were allowed from the media. Goodrem chose instead to tell her story in the songs from her new album, Delta. After beating cancer, watching the break-up of her parents and enduring tabloid scrutiny in Britain, where she was accused of breaking up the marriage of the former Westlife singer Brian McFadden and Kerry Katona, Goodrem has much to write about.

The third album replaces the image of the cardigan-wearing Neighbours starlet - from her debut album Innocent Eyes - with a video of a Brigitte Bardot-styled Delta high-kicking on a chair.

She has credited McFadden, now her boyfriend, with inspiring her to write the music for the album, which if all goes to plan will follow the direction of the single, In This Life, which went to No 1 on the ARIA downloads charts on its release in August.

McFadden, who has been recording in Sydney, attended the concert, along with Goodrem's parents.

Catherine Rondeau, one of the 100 people who won free tickets, said she had been a fan of Goodrem's since the beginning. "She is a huge inspiration and a really good role model," the 19-year-old, from Penrith, said.

On her new look: "She is showing how you can be sexy but sophisticated. She is not cheap."