Before Born to Try: How I Don’t Care launched Delta Goodrem’s career

Most Australians were introduced to Delta Goodrem when she was cast as aspiring singer Nina Tucker on soap opera Neighbours in 2002. The role was written especially for the then 17 year old and helped launch Delta's career as one of Australia's most talented young singer songwriters.

Single Born to Try was launched on the show and reached number one on the ARIA Singles Chart and number three in the UK. Debut album Innocent Eyes became a record-breaking success, spending 29 weeks at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart and becoming one of the highest-selling Australian albums of all time.

But Born to Try was not Goodrem's first single release. Just 12 months earlier, Delta released debut single I Don't Care and without it her Neighbours career may never have happened.

Originally released in September 2000 by American singer and actress Angela Via, Delta's version of the song entered the ARIA singles chart in November 2001. Peaking at number 64, it was the teenager's first single release after signing with Sony Music Australia. The song leaned heavily into the glossy teen-pop sound dominating the early 2000s, drawing comparisons to the style popularised by artists such as Britney Spears and Mandy Moore.

The single’s music video followed a rebellious teen narrative, featuring Goodrem sneaking away from home with her bad-boy love interest for a motorcycle ride into the forest. The clip culminated in a romantic reveal involving a tree decorated with ribbons, while intercut scenes showed Goodrem dancing against festive lights and wandering through a wheat field.

At the time, the single presented a very different image of Goodrem from the piano-playing singer-songwriter audiences know today. The song’s polished pop production and marketing direction were later acknowledged by Goodrem herself as being heavily shaped by the record label and not necessarily a true representation of herself or her musical style.

Speaking to Andrew Denton on the TV program Enough Rope with Andrew Denton in 2007, Goodrem reflected on the experience -

"When you start with a record company you don't really know what the whole process is. You don't know...the whole military operation before a song even gets to the radio and for people to even get to hear it."

A planned follow-up single and debut album were shelved after the song's lack of chart success, but it wasn't all bad news for Delta. Producers from Neighbours noticed the singer through the song's music video and soon approached her about joining the long-running Australian soap, offering her the role of Nina Tucker in early 2002.

Goodrem initially hesitated, feeling the original version of the character did not align with her musical identity. After discussions with producers, the role was reworked, ultimately leading to one of the most successful storylines in the show’s history — and helping catapult Goodrem into a household-name across Australia and the United Kingdom.

Despite its omission from her debut album, I Don't Care did feature during Delta's 2005 Visualise Tour and also in the Edge of Seventeen medley, which was included as a B-side to her 2008 single I Can't Break It to My Heart. But in later years it remained unavailable to stream or view on YouTube and had largely been forgotten as Delta's debut single release.

In recent years, Delta has embraced the song, uploading it to YouTube in July 2020, where it currently has over 100,000 views.

In 2021, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the single’s release, Goodrem recreated scenes from the original clip with then boyfriend (now husband) Matthew Copley and shared the side-by-side remake on Instagram. The recreation immediately delighted fans, particularly because Copley bore an uncanny resemblance to the actor who played her boyfriend in the original video. Fans flooded social media with many marvelling at the singer’s unchanged appearance — helped by the fact she wore the same striped top from the 2001 clip. Goodrem herself laughed off the comparisons in her caption, joking: “Yes, it is the same top! But not the same boyfriend.”

In 2022, I Don’t Care finally arrived on streaming platforms, introducing a whole new generation of listeners to Delta Goodrem’s very first single. While it may not be the defining song of her career, the track has evolved from a little-known debut into a nostalgic fan favourite — and without it, the remarkable career that followed may never have begun.

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