Tina Arena (born Filippina Lydia Arena on November 1, 1967, in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne, Australia) is a pop singer.
Career
Arena's career began at the age of seven when she was selected as a regular performer for the music television program Young Talent Time. As a child Arena attracted attention for the power of her voice, which was considered remarkable for such a young child. Often billed as "Tiny Tina Arena", she was seen on weekly television singing and dancing the current pop hits. The show's policy was to promote talented children, and at the age of sixteen team members would leave, ostensibly to follow an adult career. As one of the show's youngest performers, Arena's nine year stint was also one of the show's longest.
Like most of the children who left the show, Arena carried with her a stigma that made it difficult to be taken seriously as an adult vocalist, and for a short time she contemplated ending her career, and found employment with an insurance company. She was invited to support Lionel Richie on his Australian tour, but despite this success and the profile it gave her, record companies were unwilling to offer her a recording contract. Arena persevered, playing nightclubs in Melbourne and in several stage musicals, before finally being offered a contract. Her album Strong as Steel, released in 1990, contained one major hit single, the uptempo dance track, "I Need Your Body", whose accompanying video demonstrated Arena as a sexy and confident adult. The contrast between her adult image and that of the seven year old child she had been when she first became famous attracted considerable publicity in Australia, but some elements of the media insisted that she was little more than a novelty act. Despite the success of the further singles,The Machine's Breaking Down and the Diane Warren title track, the album failed to establish her as a major act, and she relocated to the United States.
After signing a contract with Sony Music, Arena released the album Don't Ask in 1994. It became one of the highest selling albums of the year in Australia and provided her with her first substantial hit single "Chains". The song also reached the Top 10 in the United Kingdom and Top 40 in the United States. Arena's career was said to be a priority of record executive Tommy Mottola who envisioned her achieving the level of success of Céline Dion or Mariah Carey, but the album failed to sell well in the US, and Mottola moved on to other projects. Other hits followed in Australia and Europe, including "Heaven Help My Heart", "Wasn't It Good" and "Sorrento Moon". The album won Arena five ARIA Awards for "Album of the Year", "Song of the Year" ("Chains"), "Pop Release of the Year" ("Chains") and "Best Female Vocalist", as well as a special award for "Highest Selling Female Artist in Australian History". After more than twenty years she was finally accepted as a credible performer by both the record buying public and the Australian music industry.
Her next album In Deep (1997), produced by Foreigner's Mick Jones contained a cover version of their hit "I Want To Know What Love Is" (with backing vocals by the song's original vocalist Lou Gramm) and another major hit single "Burn". In Deep was the highest selling Australian album of the year. During this time she recorded the theme song for the film The Mask of Zorro, a duet with Marc Anthony titled "I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You". This song was highly successful in Europe, and Arena embraced European culture, recording several songs in French and relocating temporarily to France. During this period her greatest successes were these French recordings and they were major hits in France. A repackaged version of the In Deep album including the new French versions, and a cover version of the Édith Piaf song "Les Trois Cloches" was a major hit throughout Europe and reached number 3 in France.
Her 2001 album Just Me was a moderate success and included such hit singles as Soul Mate #9, Dare You To Be Happy and Symphony of Life.
In 1998, Arena was invited to perform the role of Esmerelda in the West End production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in London. In 2000, she performed to the largest audience of her career at the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, when she sang the Olympic Flame song, titled The Flame. Later that year she received an outstanding achievement ARIA Award for her career achievement, with the award also specifically recognising her success in France.
In 2003 she was recruited by techno DJ Ray Roc to sing on his single "Never (Past Tense)". The song was one of the year's longest running hits on the Billboard Magazine Club Charts where it reached number one.
Arena completed her contract with Sony Music in the Fall of 2004, releasing a Greatest Hits album and a Greatest Hits DVD marking the end of her association with them. She was also released her Greatest Hits Live which features 90 minutes of LIVE concert footage recorded during her 2004 Greatest Hits tour in Australia.
After resigning a record deal with Columbia France, Arena recorded a new entirely French album, called Un Autre Univers (Another Universe). The album was co-written by Arena and an assortment of French and English writers and producers. The first single "Aimer jusqu´a l´impossible" (Love Till The Impossible) received airplay across French radio and debuted on the French national charts at #3. On November 17th 2005, Arena and partner Vincent Mancini became parents, with the birth of a son, Gabriel Joseph, in Paris. Her second single Je M'appelle Bagdad received also a big airplay on French radio.
Accomplishments
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Tina is Australia's Highest Selling Female Recording Artist.
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She is one of only five non-French artists to sell over 1,000,000 units in France.
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The first single from her album
Un Autre Univers remained in the French Top 5 for over 12 weeks.
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Tina has won 6 ARIA Awards.
Discography and Her Singles
Soundtracks
One Fine Day
The Mask of Zorro
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Single:
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"I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You" (Duet with
Marc Anthony)
Notre Dame de Paris
The Games Of The XXVII Olympiad 2000: Music from the Opening Ceremony
The Dish
Awards
This is the listing of the contents in Tina's trophy cabernet. Throughout the years, Tina has won an incredible amount of awards during her career spanding over 30 years, ranging from an ARIAs to world music awards.
1983
Penguin Award: Best New Talent Television Society of Australia: Special Recognition
1990
Countdown Reader's Poll: Best New Talent
1995
ARIA: Highest Selling Australian Album [Don't Ask] ARIA: Best Pop Release [Chains] ARIA: Song of The Year [Chains] ARIA: Album of the Year [Don't Ask] Radio Awards: Most Played Artist Variety Club: Entertainer of the Year Brit Awards: Best International Newcomer [Nomination] Young Australian of the Year: Outstanding Achievement
1996
APRA Awards: Song Of The Year [Wasn't It Good] World Music Awards: World's Best Selling Australian Artist Advance Australia Foundation: Outstanding Contribution Radio Awards: Best Australian Performer on Radio ARIA: Highest Selling Album [Don't Ask]
1999
Alma Awards: [I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You]
2000
ARIA: Outstanding Achievement BMI Awards: For co-writing Burn
2004
USA Dancestar Awards: Best Single [Never (Past Tense)] [Nomination] USA Dancestar Awards: Best Dance Act [Never (Past Tense)] [Nomination]
External links
