Delta Goodrem is looking to reign victorious for Australia at this year’s Eurovision in Vienna, despite once being told she would never speak again.
The Born To Try singer and Neighbours actress, 41, who has had a total of nine number ones and 17 top-ten hits on the ARIA charts Down Under, has brought Australia to the grand final for the first time in three years with her track Eclipse.
She has been widely praised and joins second-round winners Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Norway, Cyprus, Malta, Albania, Denmark and Czechia in the finals.
Despite her dazzling career, Delta has been thwarted with health battles, including her Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis in 2003 aged just 18, from which she recovered before having to re-learn how to speak after having her salivary gland removed.
Her rise to Eurovision success is monumental for the star after the 2018 salivary gland removal caused a paralysed nerve in her tongue, after which she was at risk of never speaking or singing again – before she battled to regain her talent.
Speaking of the battle, she previously said: ‘That damage meant that I had to then learn how to speak again and how to be able to pronunciate. It was a complete paralysis, and it was a lot of hard work, a lot of determination.’
Delta Goodrem is looking to reign victorious for Australia at this year’s Eurovision in Vienna, despite once being told she would never speak again
Despite her dazzling career, Delta has been thwarted with health battles, including her Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis in 2003 aged just 18, from which she recovered before having to re-learn how to speak after having her salivary gland removed (pictured in 2003)
After failing to enter the competition last year, Australia received the loudest applause of the night on Thursday when she made it through with Eclipse.
Her resurgence comes off the back of her incredible survivor story, with her first battle being aged just 18, when in July 2003 she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, an uncommon cancer that develops in the lymphatic system.
On discovering the cancer, she said: ‘I was doing sit-ups when I felt something pop in my neck. I reached down and I felt a small lump at the base of my throat. It wasn’t sore, it wasn’t visible, but I could feel it.’
She underwent radiation therapy and chemotherapy, which led to her losing her hair, which she confessed was the ‘hardest part’ due to the fact she was still a teen.
Speaking about her treatment, Delta said: ‘The treatment was tough. I remember one day staring out of the window, longing to be able to just go for a walk and get a coffee. I looked in the mirror. My face had a green tinge…
‘My hair was falling out. I had lost so much weight and I thought, I don’t recognise this person. You know rationally you’re the same person, but you look and feel so different.’
Pictured in April 2003, just one month before her Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis
After overcoming her cancer, in 2018 a routine operation went wrong and led to Delta losing the ability to speak and having to completely re-learn speech.
Delta did not go public with the details until 2020, when she revealed the battle which she said she had ‘taken on a private path’ but was then ready to share.
Alongside a six minute long video called ‘Paralyzed’, she said: ‘I’ve lived my life in the public eye my entire life since I was a teenager…
‘It was a really private path, but I’m thankful that when I released that video, the amount of people that came forward and shared with me… I just had this beautiful connection to people.’
On the surgery and aftermath, she said: ‘That damage meant that I had to then learn how to speak again and how to be able to pronunciate. It was a complete paralysis, and it was a lot of hard work, a lot of determination…
Delta said losing her hair was extremely difficult during her cancer as she was still a teenager (pictured in 2004)
After overcoming her cancer, in 2018 a routine operation went wrong and led to Delta losing the ability to speak and having to completely re-learn speech
‘I went to rehab with my speech therapy — every single day learning how to speak, It was obviously, as a singer, deeply troubling at the time…
‘I understood this was such a fight that I had to go through. I spent all the time trying to speak and learning and had a wonderful speech therapist, wonderful doctors, so I could be able to make the new record again.’
Delta later said: ‘When I woke up I realised there was nerve damage. I actually had a flight booked for the UK – this was 2018 – but I ended up having to go to ground and go to speech therapy. I didn’t have any idea when it was going to get back to normal. It could be three months or three years.’
In another interview, she said: ‘I understand that everybody has their challenges and that just happened to have been one of mine. But yes, it was definitely a challenging time.’
