Tina Arena French Songs

[Dot Liljenquist]

FilippinaLydia "Tina" Arena AM (born 1 November 1967) is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, musical theatre actress and record producer. She is one of Australia's highest-selling artists and has sold over 10 million records worldwide.[1][2][3] Arena is multilingual, singing and recording in English, Italian, French and Spanish.

Arena has earned several international and national awards, including a BRIT Award, seven ARIA Awards and two World Music Awards for Best-selling Australian Artist (1996, 2000). In 2001, she was awarded a BMI Foundation Songwriting Award (Broadcast Music Inc) by the American performance rights organisation for co-writing "Burn" with Pam Reswick and Steve Werfel.[4] In 2011, Arena became the first Australian to be awarded a knighthood of the French National Order of National Merit, presented by the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, for her contributions to French culture, and ceremonially awarded by Frdric Mitterrand, the Minister of Culture and Communication of France.[5]

In 2015, Arena was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association ARIA Hall of Fame.[6] On Australia Day, 26 January 2016, Arena was recognised in the Australia Day Honours and appointed a member in the General Division of the Order of Australia "for significant service to the music industry as a singer, songwriter, and recording artist, and as a supporter of charitable groups".[7][8] In 2016 Arena was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).[9][10]

Arena's family call her Pina, which is her shortened first name. She changed her first name from Filippina to Tina, her stage name becoming Tina Arena, when she appeared as a child performer on the national television talent show Young Talent Time in 1976, at age 8.[16][17][18] For secondary schooling, she attended a Catholic girls' college, St. Columba's College, Essendon, in Melbourne.[19] Recalling her upbringing, Arena says, "It was a very Italian household, it was a very traditional household. There was a lot of love but there was a lot of discipline. And there was no room for pretentiousness. Really, there just wasn't."[16]

Arena received singing lessons from Voila Ritchie who recommended her to appear on a television talent quest and variety show, Young Talent Time, an Australian weekly television variety program produced by Lewis-Young Productions and screened on Network Ten.[16]

As a core member of the Young Talent Team performing live on Australian national television each week, Arena sang cover versions of popular music tracks. In 1977, she released a split album, Tiny Tina and Little John, alternating tracks with fellow Young Talent Team member, John Bowles.[25]

As a member of the Young Talent Team, Arena appeared in TV specials, in TV commercials, at shopping centres and on tourist venues.[26] In September 1982, she became a "coach" for new team members, Danielle Minogue and Mark McCormack; Arena told The Australian Women's Weekly's Debbie Byrne that "They seem to be settling down a lot quicker than I did. They both have a really professional attitude."[27] At 14, she told Byrne "my aim: to be a recording artist and actress but, now, I have to concentrate simply on what I'm doing and that can take enough effort."[28]

Speaking at her BIGSOUND keynote address in 2017, Arena described her childhood to teenage experience on Young Talent Time as an inclusive apprenticeship into the television light-entertainment and musical industry in Australia, Arena noted:

It was 40 years ago and there were no ethnic faces on [Australian] television. It was an extraordinary apprenticeship. Young Talent Time was inclusive and welcoming. The only downside of Young Talent Time was when I was trying to transition to an adult.[18]

At age 17, Arena signed a record deal with Graffiti Records, which released her debut single, "Turn Up the Beat", in 1985. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described it as having a "dance-pop" style.[23] The Sydney Morning Herald's Tim Elliott said that it "failed to impress".[15] It had been recorded in the previous year with Brian Cadd producing at Flagstaff Studios in Melbourne.[30] When the single did not appear in the top 50 her planned album was scrapped.[30]

Following her 1985 recording, Arena sang advertising jingles and worked on the pub and club circuit to earn a living.[15][31] She performed solo shows and in bands, including as a member of a nine-piece ensemble, Network.[23] She also appeared in musicals.[32] In 1987, she supported American artist Lionel Richie on his Australian tour[23] following a number of charity performances.

During 1988, Arena appeared as a guest on Australian TV shows recalling her tenure on Young Talent Time and looking for a new record label. In 1990, she had a singing and dancing role in the David Atkins' musical, Dynamite, for a 10-month run.[23] Also that year she signed with EMI and reinvented her image as a raunchy disco diva.[23] In April she issued a single, "I Need Your Body",[33] which peaked at No. 3 on the ARIA Singles Chart.[34] McFarlane described it as "uptempo" with the associated music video "projecting a raunchy disco-diva persona ... flaunting a pouting rock starlet with bouncing cleavage and attitude to burn."[23] Australian journalist Ed Nimmervoll noticed that she used "raunchy videos showing off her cleavage as if to prove she was a woman now."[35]

The artist followed with another single, "The Machine's Breaking Down", in July 1990, which peaked in the top 30.[34] Her debut solo album, Strong as Steel, was released in October, and peaked at number 17 on the ARIA Albums Chart.[34] Most of the album was produced by Ross Inglis.[23][36] Penelope Layland of The Canberra Times opined that "the frantic single, 'I Need Your Body', is quite uncharacteristic of much of the music on Tina Arena's album, Strong As Steel. In fact, it is one of the weakest tracks on an album which bounces with potential pop hits."[36]

According to music historian Ed Nimmervoll, Arena "was not comfortable. This was not her. This was not what she wanted to be for the rest of her life. Tina went into seclusion while she decided what to do next, moving to Los Angeles to be a nobody again."[35] She relocated to LA in 1991, where she took more singing lessons and started songwriting.[23] Upon return to Australia, in 1993, she performed in the local December 1992 to February 1993 musical theatre production, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as the Narrator, at the State Theatre, Melbourne.[23][24][35][37] In 1992 Arena sang background vocals on the debut album by Australian singer-songwriter Rick Price, titled Heaven Knows, which was released in July 1992, and she appeared in the 1993 music video by Price for the single "A House Divided".[38]

Arena's second solo studio album, Don't Ask, was released on 14 November 1994.[39] It was produced by David Tyson for Columbia Records. According to Nimmervoll, during recording "Tina nearly broke down. This was an all-important moment in her career."[35] Arena co-wrote all 10 tracks of the original Australian version.[40]

Don't Ask was the highest-selling album of 1995 in Australia and one of the biggest-selling albums by an Australian female singer to date.[23][35] It has sold over two million copies worldwide and was certified 10 times platinum by ARIA in 2011 for shipment of over 700,000 copies in that country alone.[35][44][45] The success of the record made her a "priority artist" for Sony, who marketed her in the US.[23] Her European success was realised: Don't Ask charted in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland.[46][47][48]

At the ARIA Music Awards of 1995, Arena was nominated in six categories and won four trophies: Best Pop Release and Song of the Year for "Chains"; and Album of the Year and Best Female Artist for Don't Ask.[50] At the 1996 ceremony she received five more nominations and won Highest Selling Album for Don't Ask.[50] Other accolades she earned were Variety Club Entertainer of the Year, an Advance Australia Foundation award, and a World Music Award.

In Deep, in its different versions, provided ten singles, with the lead one, "Burn", appearing in July 1997,[34] which had some US airplay. The track was co-written by Arena with Reswick and Werfel.[40] In Australia it debuted at No. 2 and was certified gold upon its release.[34][53] It was also a hit in Asia. Besides the English-language version she also recorded it in Spanish and Italian (in the form of "Ti Voglio Qui"). The second single, "If I Didn't Love You" (November) appeared in the ARIA top 50.[34] In April of the following year she issued "Now I Can Dance", which peaked at No. 13.[34] In the UK Arena released "Whistle Down the Wind" (June 1998) as a cover version single, it was the title track from the 1996 musical of the same name, her version reached the UK Singles Chart top 30.[42]

In April 1998, Arena performed at the 50th birthday celebration for Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Arena performed at the celebration, along with John Farnham, and featured musical performances by Elaine Paige.[54]

Arena toured the US from March 1999, to promote the album's local release, as well as another single, "If I Was a River", which did peak in the UK top 40.[23][42] Sony attempted to "break" Arena into the US market by the release of "If I Was a River", penned by Diane Warren. Ruhlmann felt the label had an "obvious plan is to turn her into a down-under Celine Dion" however the album and its singles "had no commercial impact upon release in the U.S." and "must be considered a disappointment."[52] Her US foray included appearances on TV shows such as Donny & Marie. In February 1999, she teamed with label-mate Donna Summer to perform a cover version of "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)"; the duet appeared on Summer's live album, Live & More Encore (June 1999).

3a8082e126