''Only Santa Knows'' is the sixth studio album and the first full-length Christmas album by Australian singer-songwriter

Delta Goodrem Delta Lea Goodrem Order of Australia, AM (born 9 November 1984) is an Australian singer, songwriter, television personality and actress based in Sydney. Goodrem signed a recording contract with Sony Music at the age of 15. Her debut studio album ...

. It was released on 13 November 2020 through

Sony Music Australia Sony Music Entertainment Australia is the predominant record label operated by American parent company Sony Music Entertainment in Australia. Prior to 1995, SMEA published and distributed video games in Australia & New Zealand on behalf of So ...

. It is Goodrem's second Christmas release, after 2012's ''

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

'' EP. The album includes two original tracks and 11 covers, including "

Silent Night "Silent Night" () is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO The United Nations Educati ...

" with

Gurrumul Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (22 January 1971 – 25 July 2017), commonly known as Gurrumul and also referred to since his death as Dr G. Yunupingu, was a Yolŋu Aboriginal Australian musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he played drums, keyboards ...

, which was recorded in 2014 and included on '' The Spirit of Christmas 2014''. The album was reissued on 19 November 2021 in a deluxe edition format containing four new additional tracks.

Background

While working on an album of original material through 2019 and 2020 (which was later confirmed as her 2021 seventh studio album '' Bridge over Troubled Dreams''), ''Only Santa Knows'' was released on 12 November 2020 with no prior announcement. On

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, Goodrem stated: "I hope the music brings you joy and puts us all in good spirits regardless of everything going on around us." Following the surprise release of the album, Goodrem explained that the idea for a Christmas album had begun "midway through the year" and that she "went to storage, grabbed all the Christmas decorations, took them to the studio and started getting into the spirit".

Reception

In a review for ''Only Santa Knows'', website ''Stack'' referred to Goodrem as a "traditionalist" and opined that "opening on an uber-haunting version of the already spooky Carol of the Bells, it’s immediately clear Delta Goodrem knows what makes the Christmas classics tick". Thomas Bleach commented "reimagining some Christmas classics through her Delta Goodrem musical lens, she's delivered some very uplifting renditions of "

The Little Drummer Boy "The Little Drummer Boy" (originally known as "Carol of the Drum") is a popular Christmas song written by American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. First recorded in 1951 by the Austrian Trapp Family, the song was further popularized ...

", "

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on C ...

", " White Christmas" and "

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas song written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, and first recorded by Harry Reser and His Orchestra. When it was covered by Eddie Cantor on his radio show in November 1934 it became a hit; w ...

". She even recorded her own version of Joni Mitchell's "

River A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

" which over time has become a Christmas cult favourite. But on top of that, she also wrote a brand new Christmas song which embodies the importance of believing during this time of year." ''Only Santa Knows'' debuted on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

at number five, the lowest opening week of Goodrem's career. In its fifth charting week, the album rose to number two.

Promotion

To support the album, Goodrem announced her own Christmas special ''Christmas with Delta'', which aired on

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

on 12 December 2020, to a viewership of 380,000. She then did a follow-up in 2021 in Luna Park Melbourne 2021. She did her third concert with tribute to

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British and Australian singer and actress. With over 100 million records sold, Newton-John was one of the List of best-selling music artists#100 million to 119 million record ...

in 2022.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history

References

{{Delta Goodrem 2020 Christmas albums Delta Goodrem albums Sony Music Australia albums Sony Music albums Surprise albums