finetune artist: Tina Arena

b. Philopina Lidia Arena, 1 November 1967, Melbourne, Australia. Singer-songwriter Arena (a Sicilian name pronounced ah-rey-nah) had her first brush with fame on the Australian television show Young Talent Time. Having become a stalwart of the show (as "Tiny Tina"), she made an abortive attempt at starting a solo career with "Turn Up The Beat" in 1985. In 1989, she tried again with the single "I Want Your Body". A faceless pop-dance composition that accompanied a similarly unconvincing debut album, Strong As Steel, it reached number 2 in the Australian charts. Sadly, it also severely affected Arena's credibility, and in December 1991 she moved to Los Angeles, California, USA. An unknown there, she managed to meet local songwriters and also found time to work on her own songs. These compositions, which eventually appeared on her 1995 comeback album, Don't Ask, were a major stylistic improvement on those of her debut. Cultivating an audience among Melbourne's vibrant gay population (which had proved so instrumental in Kylie Minogue's rise), there was still little about Don't Ask to excite critics. Launched internationally with a sequence of promotional visits to the UK, she discovered the market already inundated with photogenic dance-pop singers - not least her own compatriots. "Chains" still managed to become a worldwide hit, reaching the Top 10 in the UK and breaking into the Billboard Top 40 in America. On the back of further hit singles, Don't Ask went on to sell over three million copies worldwide, making Arena the biggest-selling Australian female artist of all time, although she failed to conquer the lucrative American market. In Deep was another huge success in Australia, promoted by the single "Burn", which reached number 2 in her home chart. The album was not issued in the US until two years later. In June 1998, she reached the UK Top 30 with the title song of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's Whistle Down The Wind. Two years later she starred as Esmeralda in the London production of Notre-Dame De Paris.

Listen to Tina Arena at Finetune.

Chains
Burn
I Want to Know What Love Is
I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You (Duet With Marc Anthony)
Sorrento Moon (I Remember)