Tina Arena: 'I Spent Many Years Pleasing Others And Ignoring Myself'

“But I won't fake it / I can't be anything that I’m not…” – these lyrics from Cry Me A Miracle – the second song on Tina Arena’s stunning new album Love Saves – really encapsulate how she's approached her entire career, which spans almost five decades (Tina became a permanent cast member on Young Talent Time in 1976, aged just eight).

An excerpt from Tina’s incredible speech, delivered while accepting the inaugural Rolling Stone Icon Award earlier this year, echoes this sentiment: “I keep true to my internal compass because authenticity is an absolute must for me.” When asked whether she’s sometimes struggled to maintain authenticity throughout her career, Tina replies, “Yeah, of course, because I think I spent way too many years trying to please others and disregarded myself – disregarded what I truly needed – in the process. So I threw my compass off course, totally. 

“I've been such a part of the mainstream for a very long time. I was dealing with a lot of superficiality where I just don't think that people were really interested in what I was all about because I wasn't a purposeful rebel: I didn't go out to stick my middle finger up at everybody because sometimes I think when people do that in music, they get a bit more respect. Then if you are too gracious? Well, then, people really do take advantage of that, and it's the absolute truth. And you get lost, of course. But I think I'd have to say I spent many years pleasing others and ignoring myself.”

In 2015, Tina was inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame, and her performance of Chains – during which she shared her spotlight with Jessica Mauboy and The Veronicas – further cemented her status as “one of the greatest Australian voices of all time”. “I mean, people still talk about that ARIA performance and the speech, too, ‘cause it went viral around the world,” Tina acknowledges. “And when I looked back at it, I kinda cringed. I went, ‘On my god, what am I doing? They're going to cancel me.’ – I mean, this was October 2015 when I did that speech. So I spoke out very early because I just went, ‘This is just not a sustainable ecosystem for me. I can't be a part of that; I just can't.’

“When I had received the information that I was being inducted, first of all, I was like, ‘Oh my god, my career is over,’ and I went, ‘They are ushering me into a nostalgic act, and I'm still in my forties, and I don't even feel like I've hit my straps!’ So I struggled with that notion, first and foremost, and then I was like, ‘What am I gonna do?’ And then my second thought was, ‘I don't wanna do this, and I don't wanna do this on my own.’ And my manager at the time sort of went, ‘What do you mean?’ I think he thought I was completely nuts. And I just said, ‘I can't stand on my own. I want to be around some women.’ 

“And Jess was the first one that came to mind. Then he said to me, ‘What about The Veronicas?’ And I went, ‘Sure, let's go!’ And I just found that I didn't really understand the impact of it at the time when I was going through it; all I knew at that point in time was that I did not wanna be alone.

“And that was a moment for me because, as women – probably differently to men – we are constantly put into competition with one another, and the notion of being in competition with one another is nonsensical to me: I do what I do for whatever reason, other people do what they do for their reasons. But I just thought that force was very important at that time, and it was very important for me to show the girls that we should never be in competition with one another; we should love one another and really respect one another; we should be there for one another. We shouldn't sit there and be bitchy and criticise one another, be insecure.

“All I knew was that the only way you can ever educate people is through love, and I really believe that. And I just said, ‘Let's do it together, let's just have some fun,’ and the girls were like, ‘Ah, yeah!’ And we did! We had a great time together, and it was impactful, you know?”

Only a handful of artists achieve the kind of longevity and continued global success that Tina enjoys. She is the only Australian artist with at least one Gold or Platinum certification, for original album releases, in every decade since the ‘70s. She also made history in 1995 as the first female artist to win both song and album of the year at the ARIA Awards for Chains and Don’t Ask (which remained in the Top 50 of the ARIA Albums Chart for a jaw-dropping 83 weeks), respectively.

“Don't Ask exploded, and I certainly had no idea it was going to have the trajectory that it did,” she reflects, “and all through that time, there was a profound lack of self-esteem for me. Nobody would have known because, you know, you don't show those emotions; you’re not allowed to do that. ‘You should be grateful for what we're doing for you.’ Sorry?” she laughs. “Okay. Alright. How do you quantify all of that? Now, looking back at this point in my life, I go, ‘Wow.’ Maybe in a way, the good thing was that it gave me strength to just keep going, but by the same breath, the amount of times of being in the ring and people really wanting to knock you out was pretty heavy. But you've gotta constantly transform it, and I guess that's what I did.”

Our first glorious taste of Loves Saves was Church, a song of tremendous emotional heft. It’s also dynamically thrilling and gives us Bond-theme vibes. “I think it would be an extraordinary soundtrack for Bond,” Tina enthuses. “It's funny because I had a few people say to me, ‘Is that religious?’ And I said, ‘No, it's not. It's about redemption.’ It's about me forgiving myself, actually: ‘I forgive you for everything / For all the nights I couldn't sleep…” – so it's really about learning to forgive myself for perhaps over-giving in things, not setting boundaries and allowing myself to be treated with an enormous amount of disrespect because people misjudge kindness for weakness. When somebody is kind, people can really take the piss, and I found that to be excruciatingly true... So Church really was the beginning of learning to forgive myself.

“Church was the first thing that was written in Stockholm in October 2020. And out of a five-day period, we wrote Church, Dancing On Thin Ice, Mother To Her Child and House – four songs in four days, a song a day. Around a piano, no technology, a pad, pencil or pen – back to the basics… I’m an analogue girl, and that is why with this record, for me, it was really important to go back to what I grew up with and what I feel comfortable with, and what I feel is an honest interpretation of what it is that I do as a singer and as a songwriter.”

Tina performed Church during her 2021 Enchanté tour, which included a one-off show at Sidney Myer Music Bowl, where she was backed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Here, Tina also performed a cover of This Woman’s Work by Kate Bush. While introducing this song, she acknowledged Bush taught her about “letting go of fear” and being brave enough to discuss uncomfortable things. 

 “I discovered Kate Bush when I first joined Young Talent Time, and we were invited as a team to the King Of Pop Awards,” Tina recalls. “I mean, I'm talking [the] ‘70s. And I remember seeing her, and she was this gorgeous little ethereal urchin: beautiful, fair, gorgeous skin and tight velvet jeans with a beautiful little silk cami and a packet of Marlboro cigarettes in her hand. She was ever so stylish and just like this fairy that walked around, and I remember being so drawn to her when I was really young.

“I’d forgotten about her, and then I was at a slumber party when I was about 12, 13, and the girl whose slumber party it was was a big Kate Bush fan. We played her records that night, and I don't remember what song it was, but I do remember sitting there in our sleeping bags and crying, and I didn't understand other than just being really moved by what I had heard as a 13-year-old. And I was marked; I was marked for life. It was an emotion; it was an alchemical reaction that I had to what I was listening to. I had a physical reaction to it.

“One of the greatest gifts that you can receive as an artist is seeing people moved by something. Whether it's sadness, reflection, elation or whatever it may be, if you can pull somebody’s emotional string, well, then you can go, ‘You know what? I think I've done my job’.”

Tina then shares some sage advice Olivia Newton-John offered her when she was “very young”, which stuck with her: “She always said to me, ‘Stay true to who you are, because who you are is a guiding light… Don't veer off course, don't become something that you're not ‘cause you're not that. You are a very gracious young woman.’ 

“Olivia really was like that angel that was hanging around. It was very interesting, when she walked into a room, the energy would change instantly; it was like somebody had opened the doors, and this rush of love came through and literally just weaved itself around you and put you under a complete spell… that humility and that gratitude and that graciousness and that level of emotional intelligence, which not a lot of people have, was overwhelming. And she knew I had struggled with lots of things in the industry.”

“Fuck you, I'm a Joan Of Arc without a cause…” – Devil In Me is this record’s super-satisfying “fuck-you moment”. “I come from battlefields, you know? I wear my shield. I have to protect myself because that's what I had to do, and it's still what you have to do… I had so much fun with [Devil In Me] and there's such a sense of irony in that song. 

“So it's interesting, I'm able to look at myself very clearly and go, ‘Well, at the end of the day, sometimes you are what you are because you allow it to happen; just take ownership of that, don't be the victim. I'm not a victim; I take ownership of my bullshit… I’m the first one to laugh at myself; trust me, I will always be the first.” 

When told we’re fairly sure Love Saves will usher in a proper Tina renaissance, she admits, “I'm really proud of it. I haven't over-burnt my ears on it. My producer Matthias [Lindblom] did the most stunning job on it. It was such a joy to work with him and a privilege, and I've really grown massively from that experience, you know? I learnt to respect myself through that whole process, and I'm very, very pleased with the body of work. I think that a lot of people will identify with it; I really do.

“I make records because I still love music, I still feel I have something to say, and the only real safe place that I can say it – and, you know, obviously still be ridiculed [for it] as well – is through music.

“Music, for me, has been the greatest therapy I’ve ever had… I wish to remain as true and as faithful to the craft as I possibly can for as long as I'm going to continue to do this. And, in all sincerity, I don't really know how long that's gonna be. I know I'm gonna hit my 50th anniversary; after that, anything is up for grabs. So you may see me, you may not. 

“It's like I said in that ARIAs speech: I will decide when it's time to walk off the stage, when it's time to put my microphone down, when it's time to draw the curtains. I'll be the decider of that, not somebody else. That's my decision.”

Love Saves is out now. You can listen to or order the album here. Australian fans can see Tina Arena perform in theatres across the country this October.

TINA ARENA 2023 AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES

Saturday 7 October            Night At The Barracks, Sydney  

Sunday 8 October               Perth Concert Hall

Friday 13 October              HOTA, Gold Coast

Thursday 19 October                  Melbourne Town Hall

Friday 20 October              Melbourne Town Hall  

Saturday 21 October          Adelaide Festival Centre