BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Full Name: Filippina Lydia Arena
Description: Vocalists,Actor, Composer, Australia
Known For: Album – “In Deep” – (1997)
Instruments: Voice
Music Styles: Easy Listening, Rock
Location: VIC, Australia
Date Born: 1st November 1960
Location Born: Moonee Ponds, Victoria, Australia
CONTACT DETAILS
Web Site: Tina Arena Official Website
Other Links: See below:
YOUTUBE VIDEO
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Tina Arena
An Australian singer, songwriter and musical theatre actress.
Tina Arena (born Filippina Lydia Arena on 1 November 1967) is an Australian singer-songwriter, actress and record producer. Arena splits her time between Australia, France and the UK, but has been based in Melbourne since 2011.Arena is one of Australia’s highest selling female artists and has won several awards, most notably six ARIA Awards and the World Music Award for best-selling Australian artist, which she received in both 1996 and 2000. In 2009, Arena was awarded the Knighthood of the Order of National Merit by the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy for her contributions to French culture. She is the first Australian to have received that order of state.
Arena appeared as a judge on the 2012 revival of Young Talent Time in Australia. The original 1977 series made her a household name. In April 2013, she was voted Australia’s all-time greatest female singer and third greatest singer overall in an industry poll conducted by Australian music writer Cameron Adams for the Herald Sun. Arena possesses the vocal range of a soprano.
Arena is multilingual and speaks English, Italian and French and can also sing in four languages: English, French, Italian and Spanish. She is of Italian descent. She has sold over 10 million records worldwide to date. Arena released her first English album of original material in eleven years, titled Reset in October 2013 and became her 6th Top 10 album in Australia.
Arena appeared in the television variety show Young Talent Time as a child before leaving after six and a half years. She released her debut single, “Turn Up the Beat”, in 1990, Arena released her debut album, Strong as Steel, which peaked at number 17 on the Australian Albums Chart. Her second album, Don’t Ask, and its six singles led to international success. Her next studio release, In Deep (1997), was certified 3× Platinum in France and peaked at No. 3 on the French Albums Chart.
Arena’s fourth album, Just Me released in 2001 and managed to debut at No.7 in Australia. In 2004, Arena released Greatest Hits 1994–2004, a compilation album.[21] After the release of the record, she then parted ways with the said recording label, striking a new deal with Sony Music BMG France. Arena released her first French album, Un autre univers in 2005. In 2007, Arena recorded an album of covers called, Songs of Love & Loss. In 2008, she released two consecutive studio albums back to back. Her second French album, 7 vies was released and debuted at #12 in France and months later the second installment of the covers project was released in the form of Songs of Love & Loss 2. In 2009, Arena released her second greatest hits album in Europe, The Best & le meilleur. She also released another compilation album in Australia, The Peel Me Sessions 2003.
Apart from recording and staging concerts, Arena has made acclaimed performances in musicals as well. She has appeared in lead roles for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1990 as the Narrator, Notre Dame de Paris in 2000 as Esmeralda, and Cabaret in 2002 as Sally Bowles. Arena returned to the London stage in April 2007, starring as Roxie Hart in the hit West End production of Chicago. It was reported that Arena was paid $200,000 per week when she was doing Notre Dame de Paris.
As a child, she would listen to Spanish, Italian and French songs that were in her family’s record collection. Arena had always possessed a powerful voice and her penchant to sing big ballads became evident when at 5 years old, Pina (a name she was called when she was yet an unknown singer) sang at her cousin’s wedding. She was the flower girl at the ceremony and urged her father to approach the host so that she could perform a song. At the wedding, she performed Daryl Braithwaite’s “You’re My World” and it was Arena’s first taste of public recognition.
After performing for seven years, Arena had to leave the show as she was approaching her 16th birthday. This was the program’s regulation to give way for younger new talents. After leaving Young Talent Time, Arena continued her education and received her HSC (higher school certificate). She was later hired as an insurance clerk but resigned after three months to pursue music, realising that having a normal day job was not her fulfillment.
This was the era wherein she would start facing the personal struggles to achieve her musical dream. She went on to approach and market herself to various Australian recording companies doing demos and performances but to no avail. She was instead told to lose weight and even change her name.
Younger artists have covered Tina’s songs in singing competitions as well, such as the winner of the second season of Australian Idol, Casey Donovan who recorded Arena’s “Symphony of Life” for her album For You and both Filipino artist Sarah Geronimo and Australian Anthony Callea who admits to be a fan of Arena’s, recorded “I Want to Know What Love Is” including the bridge that was written specifically for Arena’s version. Sarah De Bono who came in at fourth place when she joined The Voice Australia also recorded Arena’s (“If I Didn’t Love You”). Filipino artists Nina and Christian Bautista recorded a duet version of “Burn” that appeared on Nina’s album Nina Live! while Regine Velasquez did a live performance on Philippine television. Erik Santos and Sheryn Regis also recorded their version of Arena and Marc Anthony’s duet, “I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You”.
Arena’s collaboration with Marc Anthony, “I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You”, from The Mask of Zorro soundtrack, gave her a new kind of European success, tipping the scales of her success in France where both the song and the album became Top 3, which the album peaked at #3 and was certified 3× Platinum in France. Her first French single, “Aller plus haut” has sold one million copies in France and peaked at #2 on the French singles chart, her second French single, “Les trois cloches” was released in 2000, which peaked at #4. An attempt by Sony to “break” Arena into the American market prompted the release of “If I Was a River”, penned by Diane Warren, prior to In Deep’s release there. The single was not particularly successful despite numerous promotional appearances on television shows such as Donny & Marie, but in 1999 she met label-mate Donna Summer who asked her to join her in concert to sing “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”. The duet was well received and subsequently released on Summer’s live album Live & More Encore.
One of Arena’s career highlights was singing at the 2000 Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. The event took place in Stadium Australia on 15 September 2000. Seven Network covered the national broadcast across Australia and made history when the much awaited spectacle went on to become the highest rating TV telecast in Australian history. John Farnham, Olivia Newton-John, Vanessa Amorosi, Human Nature and Julie Anthony were some of the Australian artists who also appeared at the opening ceremony. Arena, dressed in a Fiona Scanlan gold-scale dress and backed up by the Sydney Children’s Choir, performed the anthemic power-ballad “The Flame”, which was written by Australian musical director, musician and TV personality, John Foreman.
Arena was quoted as saying:
“When I sang at the Olympics, I cared about the fact that I was Australian. And I was touched because I was an ethnic girl, of ethnic blood but that WAS Australian. Because I was born here, this is where I grew up, this is where I learned everything.”
Personal life
Arena and her partner, French artist Vincent Mancini (sometimes credited as Vincent Hare), have a son, Gabriel Joseph, born in 2005. Arena and Mancini began dating in 2000.
Previously Arena was married to her manager Ralph Carr. They married in 1995 and divorced in 1999.
Arena’s parents are Giuseppe and Franca Arena, Italian immigrants . She has two sisters, Nancy and Silvana. Her family calls her Pina which evolved into her stage name, Tina. Arena entered Essendon’s St. Columba’s College in 1980 and graduated in 1985.
Autobiography
Arena’s autobiography, Now I Can Dance published by HarperCollins was released on 14 October 2013 in paperback and E-book format. The book is billed as “Honest and intimate, funny and frank, Now I Can Dance is the long-awaited memoir from the very special, much-loved singer, songwriter and pop diva, Tina Arena.”
External links:
- Tina Arena Official Website
- Tina Arena Official Facebook
- Tina Arena Official Myspace
- Tina Arena Official Twitter
- Tina Arena Philippines
- Tina Arena Unofficial Blog
Albums include.
Strong as Steel (1990)
Don’t Ask (1994)
In Deep (1997)
Just Me (2001)
Un autre univers (2005)
Songs of Love & Loss (2007)
7 vies (2008)
Songs of Love & Loss Deluxe Edition (2008)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia