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

Delta Goodrem Delta Lea Goodrem AM (born November 9, 1984) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Goodrem signed to Sony Music at the age of 15. Her debut album, '' Innocent Eyes'' (2003), topped the ARIA Albums Chart for 29 non-consecutive week ...

. 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. SMEA also formerly published and distributed video games in Australia & New Zealand on behalf of Sony ...

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

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

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

Silent Night "Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an ...

" with Gurrumul, 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 ''Bridge over Troubled Dreams'' is the seventh studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Delta Goodrem. It was released on 14 May 2021 and serves as Goodrem's first album of all-new material since 2016's ''Wings of the Wild''. The album will ...

''), ''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 Trapp Family, the song was further popularized by a 19 ...

", "

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 ...

", " White Christmas" and "

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas song featuring Santa Claus written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. The earliest known recorded version of the song was by banjoist Harry Reser and his band on October 24, 1934. It was then ...

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

River A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

" 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 The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, 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 five main free-to-air television netw ...

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-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

in 2022. https://www.nineforbrands.com.au/media-release/make-your-christmas-divine-with-delta/

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