EXCLUSIVE: As Tina Arena marks 50 years in showbiz with a swag of new projects, the singer talks image crises, health woes, defending Aussie identity and struggling with calling herself an artist: \u201cI didn\u2019t think I was worthy\u201d<\/p>\n
Anybody remotely familiar with Tina Arena knows she doesn\u2019t mince words.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a trait that has come to define her, a kind of Rosetta Stone if you want to make sense of her dizzying journey to icon status. Steely. Outspoken. Uncompromising.<\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t always been like this. <\/p>\n
Arena \u2013 like any public figure who has ridden the waves of popularity for five decades \u2013 has the experience, and the battle scars, to identify the moments when perhaps she should have agitated for herself a bit more fiercely. She can see clearly now what worked and what didn\u2019t; what was worth fighting for, and what wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Listen to the full interview with Tina Arena on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About: <\/p>\n
Now, to mark her 50 years in the business, Arena is bringing all of this well-earned knowledge to bear in a new documentary about her life. <\/p>\n
She\u2019s reflected on her career before and marked milestones with album reissues, concert tours and a memoir in 2013, but this film saw her mining her archives, journeying from the moment she landed her star-making role as a prodigious child singer on Young Talent Time (that earnt her the moniker \u201cTiny Tina\u201d) to present day.<\/p>\n
\u201cFifty years is a hell of a long time,\u201d Arena tells Stellar over a Zoom call from her Melbourne home, where she\u2019s seated on the floor as her Jack Russell terrier Maia enters the frame for a kiss. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been 50 years. And I can\u2019t believe that I\u2019ve survived, to be honest. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the wonderful things about the day and age in which we live \u2013 and the internet is the wild west \u2013 is there\u2019s an element where people can understand what truly goes on. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey can find out all sorts of information. That\u2019s a good thing: that people are actually aware that having a life in showbiz, as a public figure, is unbelievably challenging. It really is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither a hagiography nor a score-settling exercise, Tina Arena: Unravel Me leaves plenty of topics on the cutting-room floor. <\/p>\n
\u201cThings I can\u2019t go into because I\u2019d put myself in a position of extraordinary danger,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019m not interested in any kind of defamation. So of course there are things that I can\u2019t talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Arena touches on some curveballs, such as how her 1990 hit \u2018I Need Your Body\u2019 \u2013 which reached No. 3 on the ARIA charts \u2013 prompted soul-searching and a creative pivot that would birth her breakthrough 1994 solo album Don\u2019t Ask and set her on a course for superstardom. <\/p>\n
At the time, audiences were still trying to figure out what they wanted next from the then-22-year-old, and a moody, sexually forthright image wasn\u2019t quite it.<\/p>\n
Today, Arena has a pragmatic take on that song and its music video. \u201cEverything you<\/p>\n
do in music is trial and error \u2013 or in life, really,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It] is a great pop song, a proper pop song. It\u2019s well-written. I was young, and didn\u2019t really know anything about image.<\/p>\n
\u201c[In the video clip], I was wearing black velvet, brooding, dark make-up. <\/p>\n
\u201cI guess people weren\u2019t used to seeing me like that. And then you\u2019ve got this cleavage. People just went, \u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople had always seen me as a little girl, so it was a shock for them. It was a shock for me, as well. <\/p>\n
Listen to the full interview with Tina Arena on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About: <\/p>\n
\u201cBut all those decisions you make \u2013 good, bad, indifferent \u2013 they\u2019re what you have to go through to understand who you are.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there are no regrets about that. That\u2019s where I was. And when I look back at it, I go: there\u2019s an element of sophistication in that \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Arena also now recognises that she was buckling under the weight of micromanagement instead of being afforded the freedom to grow into herself. \u201cYou [were] dealing with preconceived thoughts all the time, people saying, \u2018Yeah, she sings well\u2019, but having zero clue what to do with it. If you just let performers be who they are, they\u2019re comfortable, and you see their true [selves]. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to draw a conclusion when you\u2019ve got different perspectives coming from every angle. And that\u2019s what it was back then. Learning to navigate that is never easy. It\u2019s much easier now, because I\u2019m like, \u2018Well, no, this is who I am.\u2019 Back then, it was really about pleasing everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even after she finally moved beyond her \u201cTiny Tina\u201d legacy and was catapulted to unimpeachable fame, she still struggled to embrace the idea that she was an artist. <\/p>\n
Asked why, she tells Stellar, \u201cBecause I really believe that term is something you earn. The music industry refers to people who have just started in the business as artists. <\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t feel I was back then, because I was constantly up against a tremendous amount of adversity and manipulation \u2013 and a shitload of gaslighting. So I didn\u2019t have the personal belief; I didn\u2019t think I was worthy of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arena has always been an open book and has never gone to ground, though her many years living in Paris served as a clear statement that she needed to get away from the glare of an often unrelenting spotlight here.<\/p>\n
To her, that move \u2013 which she made around the turn of the century \u2013 was more than self-preservation. It was practical. <\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia is too much of a small market,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the internationals take pole position. We don\u2019t. That\u2019s just the truth. That\u2019s why the Australians have to leave.\u201d <\/p>\n
She laments that homegrown artists increasingly struggle to find themselves getting radio airplay and promotional support, particularly in the local industry. She has a theory for this. <\/p>\n
In the opening moments of the documentary, which will have its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival later this month, grainy footage of 1970s Melbourne is overlaid with her voice, declaring the Australia she grew up in boasted a \u201cbeautiful innocence, and a naivety that we don\u2019t have anymore\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked what Australia has lost in the ensuing half-century, she\u2019s quick to reply: \u201cSincerity. Not only Australia \u2013 it\u2019s everywhere. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe business model has taken over. It\u2019s about the bottom line. We\u2019ve lost the magic and the respect for creation. What we ultimately respect is the dollar. It\u2019s very tragic. And you hear that loss of respect in what\u2019s being produced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her greatest sadness is creativity being iced out by corporate overlords, artificial intelligence and suits trying to homogenise what airs on the radio.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe business is run by money, and what will happen is that a lot of real artists tend to stay away because they\u2019re deemed difficult. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo they go with a lot of younger kids who are prepared to sign their lives away, while the major labels make all the money. They\u2019ve destroyed a beautiful craft.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 58-year-old also cites another key factor. As the daughter of Sicilian immigrants, she has spoken about being treated like an \u201cother\u201d during her childhood; when Stellar asks about the debate over a return to Australia\u2019s \u201cmonoculture\u201d that has been roiling our political conversation in recent months, she keeps her focus on music. <\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I think one of the greatest political mistakes of the last 20-odd years is globalisation. \u201cWhat it\u2019s done is homogenise the world. Everybody looks the same, sounds the same, follows the same systems. <\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019ve had a massive loss of identity. Australia produced extraordinary music in the \u201970s, \u201980s and \u201990s. As soon as the noughts hit, America and the UK started to come in and basically take over our airwaves. Australian artists had to take a number and go to the back of the queue. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was having these conversations back then. And people would say to me, \u2018Oh, that kind of comment can only come from a jealous artist.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I went, \u2018Sorry? Hang on. Jealous? I\u2019m not jealous.\u2019 I\u2019ve been so lucky to have had the career I have. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t be not amazed by what\u2019s been achieved. But that\u2019s another perfect example of being gaslit \u2013 that typical mentality of, \u2018You\u2019re ungrateful. I don\u2019t understand that perspective.\u2019 I was like, \u2018What\u2019s difficult to understand?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in Australia. Australian artists should be prioritised. They shouldn\u2019t have to constantly compete with what comes out from overseas. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s called protecting your market, making sure the musicians in this country have enough food on their plates and can pay for a roof over their heads. You wanna look at me as envious for saying that? <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that was when I realised how incredibly stupid they were, actually, and that I couldn\u2019t possibly take it personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arena ultimately found her way forward, forging her own path on her own terms. <\/p>\n
She speaks up when something doesn\u2019t feel right, as with her ARIA Hall of Fame speech in 2015, when she criticised radio bosses for ignoring older female singers. <\/p>\n
To that point, she revels in the successes of longtime friend Kylie Minogue, whose recent docuseries she watched \u2013 \u201cIt was joyous for me, because I think if anyone understands what Kylie has been through, I guess I probably [do] more than most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if she\u2019ll be in attendance when Minogue performs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the AFL Grand Final in September \u2013 two years on from Arena\u2019s appearance alongside Katy Perry \u2013 she says it\u2019s doubtful: \u201cI usually watch it on TV. I get a bit freaked out in crowds like that, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
And she now makes music on her own time, far different than decades ago when she was \u201cconstantly working against the stop clock. I just refuse to do that. I won\u2019t anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n
Stellar can exclusively reveal that she will soon release a new six-song EP called Way Of The World, which features her vocal reimaginings of hit songs by Duran Duran, New Order, Depeche Mode, Frank Ocean and the title track, made famous in 1989 by Michael Hutchence\u2019s short-lived alternative electronic band Max Q. (She also covers \u2018Torno Bambina\u2019, a childhood favourite first sung by Italian pop star Ada Mori.)<\/p>\n
Listen to the full interview with Tina Arena on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About: <\/p>\n
The time she granted herself to record the songs may also be a reflection of the wisdom she gained following a health scare; earlier this year, Arena opened up about being hospitalised in 2023, when she was in intensive care for a severe kidney infection and septicaemia, and took months to fully recover from the bout. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy health became very fragile,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt could have ended up being tragic had a former partner of mine not been vigilant and called the ambulance. A lot of things had to change. I had to start prioritising myself properly, as opposed to putting everybody else before me, which was what I did for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she spoke with Stellar in 2024, Arena revealed that her son Gabriel no longer lived at home with her, having moved to France (where her ex-partner and his father, Vincent Mancini, lives) due to his emotional turmoil following the lockdowns in Melbourne. <\/p>\n
Now, she says, \u201cI\u2019m very happy to say he came home in January. He\u2019s with me, and I\u2019m loving having him around. I missed my boy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Gabriel turns 21 in November, and when Stellar suggests \u201ca big, fun bash\u201d to mark the occasion, she nervously (but playfully) winces. She\u2019ll celebrate her own milestone birthday in 2027, but first, she\u2019s focusing on her upcoming documentary, new music \u2013 and reflecting on what she\u2019s enjoying most about this moment, which sees her taking stock of her life and career, but also embracing her present. <\/p>\n
Asked to summarise the best part of her now, Arena replies in typically unfiltered fashion: \u201cI don\u2019t give a f***. I\u2019m sorry, excuse my language. But I don\u2019t. I don\u2019t care to try to impress anybody. That\u2019s not what life is about. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s liberating, showing your good points, your hard points, your vulnerabilities and imperfections. I\u2019m not perfect, but I\u2019m comfortable with who I am. It took me a long time. I don\u2019t try to fit in anybody\u2019s box. And if people have a problem with ageing, it\u2019s their problem. It\u2019s not my problem. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 60 next year. I\u2019m looking forward to it. You just don\u2019t care anymore. I don\u2019t need anybody\u2019s approval for anything. I just need to be kind to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen to the full interview with Tina Arena on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About: <\/p>\n
Tina Arena: Unravel Me will premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 12. Arena\u2019s EP Way Of The World will be released soon. <\/p>\n
See the cover shoot with Tina Arena in a new issue of Stellar, out today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: As Tina Arena marks 50 years in showbiz with a swag of new projects, the singer 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