Delta Goodrem is back after beating cancer

1.00pm - By HEATHER TYLER

Delta Goodrem's second album debuted at number one on the Australian pop charts this week, a firm declaration the young cancer sufferer is back in charge of her life.

Diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease - cancer of the lymphatic system - 18 months ago, she underwent surgery to removes nodules from her neck, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

For a year Goodrem couldn't sing, but now she is in remission and she says her energy and stamina have returned over the past six months as she put her second album together.

Her long, blonde tresses fell out as a result of the chemotherapy. The album cover features Goodrem with cropped, dark hair.

"My hair fell out all over, but it's growing again," she says with delight, but she's happy to have a stylish, short look.

Mistaken Identity tells of Goodrem's tumultuous 18 months. It is a more dramatic album than her debut, Innocent Eyes, which sold more than 2.3 million copies worldwide.

"My life was extremely different from when I did the first album. Everything changed when I got cancer...I started to write really dark, introspective songs, and then as I started to get back into life again I started to feel a bit lighter, my head was clearer, and I began to write more positive songs," she says.

"The song Mistaken Identity is the colour of the album. This is how I feel right this second, it's the tone, the statement, the honesty, the literal words -- everything that I want a song to be for me.

"Another track, Extraordinary Days, is the same. It's such an important part of the whole album. How could I ignore that day when I was told I had cancer, and so many people were part of that day? It is part of my defining story.

"Everybody knew about what had gone on, so I wanted to say my thoughts and feelings and the best way for me to do that is through my music."

Goodrem's much-publicised split from Australian tennis star Mark Philippoussis briefly overshadowed the publicity she wants for her second album. One song, Out of the Blue, was written for him.

Hilton heiress Paris Hilton's apparently steamy tryst with Philippoussis in Beverley Hills has recently been splashed across the covers of gossip magazines, but Goodrem is trying to be stoic about the headlines.

"I've got an album coming out and there's all this other stuff...oh, my goodness...I just try to get past it," she says.

"And I really wish them (Mark and Paris) all the best.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say it wasn't quite overwhelming sometimes, but I just want to concentrate on my music now.

"All my friends have been calling me up, and they've been very supportive. They've been beautiful."

Goodrem says she is shy of the limelight, although she accepts that her illness will attract a great deal of publicity, and interviews to promote her album go with the territory of being a pop princess.

On the day that I interview her, she's been doing back-to-back interviews for Mistaken Identity from her London hotel room for nearly 12 hours.

"I'm a musician, I sing and play, and this (media interviews) is something that is part and parcel with the job, but (exposure of her private life) it's not something that you ever expect to have to learn to deal with.

"But you have to cross every hurdle when you come to it."

As soon as she returned to Sydney from London, she celebrated her 20th birthday briefly with her family at home in Sydney, then later the same day flew to Melbourne to do a spot on the country's most popular chat show, Rove Live.

"I tend to crush as much as I can in as little time as possible," she says. "I go by the saying, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well. I am very extreme, I've decided."

Goodrem has more gruelling publicity tours to follow in Asia, the United States and Europe.

She will appear on New Zealand's Top of the Pops on Saturday, November 20, and she's coming back next year for a concert tour.

- NZPA