Calls Build For Delta Goodrem To Be Inducted Into The ARIA Hall Of Fame

Fans of Delta Goodrem have been calling for the Australian music icon to be recognised in a larger fashion, wondering why she hasn’t been inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame yet – or, at least, inducted alongside Jet this year.

It’s not the first call for someone new to enter the ARIA Hall Of Fame: last month, The Music’s Stephen Green argued that The Screaming Jets deserved the honour as much as Jet, while Jeff Jenkins argued the case for numerous Australian music legends in an open letter to ARIA, including The Atlantics, Rick Springfield, Kate Ceberano, No Fixed Address, Redgum, Baby Animals, Mike Chapman, The Cruel Sea, Kevin Borich, Stephen Cummings, Tiddas, The Screaming Jets, Delta Goodrem and Mark Opitz.

But Kate Pattison, a PhD candidate at RMIT University and former member of Goodrem’s social media team, published a new investigation via The Conversation and called for Goodrem’s induction into the ARIA Hall Of Fame.

Pattison began her article with an anecdote any young music fan can connect with: “I remember when my family bought Innocent Eyes at a JB Hi-Fi off the Nepean Highway. I was 12 and had just started high school. It was the first time I really understood the power of music; I felt like Delta was imparting words of wisdom through this time of transition. I played that original copy so much it started skipping, and I had to buy a replacement.”

She wasn’t the only one who felt that way. As Pattison points out, Innocent Eyes is the second-highest selling Australian album of all time, following John Farnham’s unstoppable Whispering Jack.

Innocent Eyes went on to sell 4.5 million copies worldwide and sold 1.2 million copies at home. Pattison put that astounding figure into context: “One in every four Australian households owned a copy.” The album has been certified 23 times Platinum.

Beyond sales, Innocent Eyes found massive acclaim, winning seven awards at the 2003 ARIA Awards.

In a bleak statistic, Pattison showed that only 11 out of 80 bands and artists inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame since its inception in 1988 have been women. There’s no doubt about it – Delta Goodrem deserves a place in the Hall Of Fame.

Last month, The Music reviewer Monique La Terra caught Delta Goodrem on her Innocent Eyes 20th-anniversary tour at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall. La Terra concluded, “Finally giving fans the album tour they never got to see, Delta’s Innocent Eyes Anniversary Tour is a chronicle of her life 20 years ago and a celebration of all that has happened since.”