Women Affairs

Joanna Hunkin After five years in the media spotlight, a battle with cancer and a series of high-profile relationships, Australian singer Delta Goodrem needed time out. Two years later, she is back with her third album Delta and determined to "do a better job this time round". The singer, who turns 23 on Friday, said she had been in a chaotic environment from the age of 15 and was feeling "a bit bruised". "I think I just needed to do what people do after uni - I needed a year off." Relocating to Britain, Goodrem said she deliberately moved away from Australia to give the public a break from her. The songwriter, who is dating former Westlife singer Brian McFadden, said she stopped writing songs as she was tired of talking about her personal experiences. "Brian definitely got me back into [songwriting]. He said, 'Get back behind the piano and do some work'. In a really positive way. He's a great influence." The self-titled third album, ...

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...