World Song Contest

Country: Australia
Artist(s): Delta Goodrem & Brian McFadden
Song: Almost Here 

Australian singer/actress Delta Goodrem got her start on the popular soap opera Neighbours, and parlayed her fame from the show into a singing career. Her first album, the million-plus-selling Innocent Eyes, arrived in 2003 and featured songs co-written by pop songwriters such as Cathy Dennis. At that time, Goodrem was splitting her time between Neighbours and her pop career, but her diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma forced her to slow down and re-evaluate her life. The direction for what was to become her next batch of songs came from Goodrem's physical and mental therapy. Recruiting a team of collaborators that included Dennis, Gary Barlow, and songwriter/producer Guy Chambers, who had also worked with pop stars including Robbie Williams, Goodrem used her experiences — good and bad — to create Mistaken Identity, which was released in the U.S. in summer 2005. Her next project involved a different team, including Westlife's Brian McFadden for his pop acumen, Stuart Crichton for his dance smarts, and Nashville-based Tommy Lee James for ballads. The result, an album titled Delta and released through Decca, appeared in 2008.

Brian McFadden is an Irish pop/rock singer/songwriter who experienced international fame as an original member of the boy band Westlife from 1998-2004 before mounting a solo career that commenced with the international chart-topper "Real to Me" in 2004. Born on April 12, 1980, in Dublin, McFadden was one of the five young men assembled by A&R executive Simon Cowell in 1998 to form the boy band Westlife. During his tenure, the group released five albums — Westlife (1999), Coast to Coast (2000), World of Our Own (2001), Unbreakable, Vol. 1: The Greatest Hits (2002), and Turnaround (2003) — all of which went multi-platinum and hit number one on the Irish albums chart (and four of the five hit number one in the United Kingdom). In addition, the group scored a dozen number one hit singles in the U.K. during this period: "Swear It Again," "If I Let You Go," "Flying Without Wings," "I Have a Dream/Seasons in the Sun," "Fool Again," "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)," "My Love," "Uptown Girl," "Queen of My Heart," "World of Our Own," "Unbreakable," and "Mandy." McFadden left Westlife in 2004 and released his full-length solo album debut, Irish Son, later in the year. Released by Sony BMG, the album failed to match the success of Westlife, but it sold well nonetheless, going Top Ten in Ireland and Top 30 in the U.K. Moreover, the album spawned a few major hit singles: "Real to Me" (number one in Ireland, the U.K., Denmark, and Norway), "Irish Son" (number four in Ireland, number six in the U.K.), and "Almost Here" (number one in Ireland and Australia, number two in Denmark, number three in the U.K.). Several years passed before McFadden re-emerged with his follow-up album, Set in Stone (2008), this time for Universal Music Group. Released initially in Australia, where it was a Top Five success, the album was promoted with the lead single "Like Only a Woman Can," a number one hit in Ireland and a Top 20 hit in Australia.