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Singer Tina (Filippina) Arena (b. 1969) got her start
in show business as a team member of Melbourne
television variety show Young Talent Time during
the late 1970s. Often referred to by compere
Johnny Young as `Tiny' Tina Arena,
it took her many years to shake off the stigma
attached. Undaunted she has gone on to become one
of Australia's most popular performers of the 1990s.
Tina grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds,
in an Italian family.
For YTT, Tina's birthname of Filippina was shortened
to simply 'Tina'. She recalls, "You have to remember,
this was the 70's and my name was, well,
shall we say ... exotic".
During her YTT days, Tina teamed up with John Bowles
and released the hit album "Tiny Tina and Little Johnny"
which has been re-released on CD.
After leaving YTT she went on to finish her schooling
and starred in the theatrical productions of "Nine",
"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat",
as well as many jingles and support gigs before
releasing the Albums "Strong as Steel",
the Multi ARIA-winning "Don't Ask" and "In Deep",
as well as contributing to the motion picture
soundtrack of "Zorro".
Tina issued her first dance-pop single,
`Turn Up The Beat', in 1987,
and appeared as support for Lionel Ritchie on his
Australian tour. She began playing the Melbourne
pub and club circuit with a nine-piece group called
Network, and co-starred with David Atkins in his stage
show Dynamite, which ran for ten months.
Tina scored her first hit single with the
uptempo `I Need Your Body'/`Stage Fright'
(#3 in June 1990). At that stage Tina was
projecting a raunchy disco-diva persona,
with the video clip to `I Need Your Body'
flaunting a pouting rock starlet with bouncing
cleavage and attitude to burn. She followed up
with `The Machine's Breaking Down'
(#23 in September 1990) and `Strong as Steel'
(#30 in November 1990), plus the
Ross Inglas-produced album Strong as Steel.
Tina's fifth single, `Woman's Work',
appeared in March 1991.
In 1991, dissatisfied with the way her career was
progressing, Tina moved to Los Angeles to take
singing lessons and commence songwriting.
She returned to Australia and toured with the 1993
local production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and
Tim Rice's musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat in the role of The Narrator.
Tina adopted a more mature, sophisticated,
soul-tinged style and approach for her second album,
the David Tyson-produced Don't Ask.
Tina co-wrote ten of the album's 11 tracks,
and her powerful, crystal clear voice more than
adequately matched the material on offer.
The album was a huge success, and spawned five hit
singles: `Chains'
(#4 in November 1994), `Sorrento Moon (I Remember)'
(#7 in April 1995), `Heaven Help My Heart'
(#22 in August 1995), `Wasn't It Good?'
(#11 in November 1995)
and `That's the Way a Woman Feels' (#31 in March 1996).
Surprisingly, the album only reached #1 on the
national charts in November 1995—a year after
its release.
Not only was Don't Ask the best selling Australian
album for 1995, but also the best selling album for
the year, ahead of Celine Dion, The Cranberries,
Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey and silverchair.
It stayed in the Top 50 for 84 weeks and went on to
sell over 600 000 copies (eight times platinum) in
Australia alone, the most ever by an Australian female
recording artist. Arena also took out the 1995
Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA)
Awards for Best Australian Album, Best Female Artist,
Best Pop Release (for `Chains') and Song of the Year
(for `Chains'). When issued in Europe, Don't Ask sold
70000 copies in its first week of release,
and the soulful `Chains' reached the Top 10 in
Britain (#6), Ireland (#9), Holland (#7) and Israel
(#8).
`Heaven Help My Heart' followed `Chains' into the UK Top 20, and Tina earned
a nomination for Best International Newcomer at the BRIT Awards,
the UK equivalent of the Grammys. In December 1995, Tina married her
long-time manager Ralph Carr. March 1996 saw the release of `Chains' in the
USA, with Don't Ask following a month later. The album also came out in Japan.
Tina based herself in Los Angeles, poised to make her presence
felt on the vast American market. By 1997, Don't Ask had sold two million
copies around the world. Tina re-emerged in August 1997 when her third album,
In Deep, made its debut at #1 on the Australian chart.
The album's first single, `Burn', had reached #2 a month earlier.
`If I Didn't Love You' followed in November. By that stage In Deep was on
its way to selling triple platinum (210000 copies).
Tina Arena followed up the success of In Deep with two
hit singles during 1998: ‘Now I Can Dance’ (#13 in May)
and a cover of Foreigner’s AOR
classic ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’
(#41 in September). By that stage, she was
concentrating her efforts for success in the US.
As labelmate to the phenomenally successful
Celine Dion, Sony USA made Tina a priority act
in the American market place. Her most prominent
appearance to date was singing a duet with
Marc Anthony on the end credit theme tune, ‘I Want to
Spend My Lifetime Loving You’, to the blockbuster
movie The Mask of Zorro.
Tina’s first US release for 1999 was the single ‘If I was a River’ (February).
Written by Diane Warren (responsible for hits by Celine Dion, as well as
Aerosmith’s ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’) the song was tailor-made for US
radio. Following the American release of In Deep in March 1999,
Tina set off across the US for a series of showcase performances.
The singer also found success in the UK, where her single of the
Andrew Lloyd Webber song ‘Whistle Down the Wind’ made its debut at #22
on the chart. Arena commenced the new millennium by scoring the role of
Esmeralda, the gypsy, in the UK stage production of the musical
Notre-Dame de Paris. The musical was set to open in May 2000.
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