Delta Goodrem looks to Newton-John for advice

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While other stars before her have failed to match their international success with fame in the United States, Goodrem, 23, who released her U.S. debut album "Delta" on Tuesday, hopes to follow in the footsteps of her role model, fellow Australian Newton-John.

"Olivia's been an incredible guiding light with me," Goodrem told Reuters in an interview this week. "She's always given me really great advice ... She's beautiful and we have a beautiful friendship."

But as for the advice she received from Newton-John, best known for her role in the 1970s hit movie "Grease" and several U.S. No. 1 albums and singles, Goodrem was tight-lipped. "If I told you that I'd have to kill you," she said, laughing.

While there are few U.S. reviews for the album, Goodrem has found a friend in famously harsh celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who said her first single "In This Life" as "deelish."

And Billboard's Chuck Taylor wrote: "With successes from Leona Lewis, Katy Perry and Natasha Bedingfield proving that the public hungers for quality female pop, timing is a bull's-eye for Goodrem's deliciously tasteful U.S. bid."

For Goodrem, who performed a duet "Right Here With You" with Newton-John at Los Angeles Gay Pride celebrations in June, her U.S. debut has been a long time coming.

A battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, diagnosed when she was 18, derailed her career while her debut album "Innocent Eyes" was at No. 1 in Australia and No. 2 in Britain and she was acting in Australian soap "Neighbours," also a hit in Britain.

"A lot happened very quickly - my debut album became something very magical in the sense that so many people took it home, one in four homes (in Australia) had that album," she said. "This wonderful moment was happening and then I got diagnosed with cancer and it was this extreme situation."

After successful treatment, which saw her lose her long blond hair, Goodrem, who has won eight Australian Recording Industry Association Awards - the Australian equivalent of the Grammys - returned with 2004's "Mistaken Identity."

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