Songs of artist: Tina Arena

Filippina Lydia Arena (born 1 November 1967), commonly known as Tina Arena, is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, musical theatre actress, and record producer. She is one of Australia’s highest selling female artists and has sold over 10 million records worldwide. Arena is an artist with the vocal range of a soprano and is multilingual: she sings live and records in English, Italian, French and Spanish. In April 2013, she was voted Australia’s all-time greatest female singer, and third-greatest singer overall, in an industry poll conducted by music journalist, Cameron Adams, for the Herald Sun. Time Out magazine gave a succinct description of Arena’s voice as, "Tina Arena truly boasts two incredible assets - her voice and her versatility …" The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s monthly classical music and arts magazine, Limelight, commented that, "Tina Arena is a performer with a supreme voice, boundless range and energy, and charm to spare."Arena has earned several international and national awards, including seven ARIA Awards, and two World Music Awards for ’Best-selling Australian Artist’, which she received in 1996 and in 2000. In 2001, Arena 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. 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 Frédéric Mitterrand, the Minister of Culture and Communication of France. In 2012, Arena appeared as a judge and mentor on the revival of the Australian television variety programme Young Talent Time: the original Young Talent Time series had made her a household name in the 1970s and 1980s, as "Tiny Tina", which screened on Network Ten from 1971 to 1988. In October 2013, Arena released her first English album of original material in eleven years, titled Reset. In the same month, Arena published her first autobiography, titled Now I Can Dance, which has been reprinted four times. Also in 2013, Arena participated in the 13th Australian series of Dancing with the Stars, reaching third place behind Cosentino and Rhiannon Fish.In 2015, Arena was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association ARIA Hall of Fame at the 2015 ARIA Awards ceremony. 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. On 27 April 2016, the Governor-General of Australia, Sir Peter Cosgrove, presented Tina Arena with her insignia as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) at a private ceremony in Paris.To celebrate her 40 years in the music industry, Arena released a 31-track double compilation album called Greatest Hits & Interpretations on 7 April 2017, containing all her hits and covers of her songs by various international artists. This album debuted at No. 2 at the Australian charts and is now her 8th Top 10 album in Australia. In April 2017, Arena announced her Innocence to Understanding Tour in conjunction with the release of her Greatest Hits & Interpretations, starting in concerts Brisbane on 6 September 2017, and concluded in early October. The title of the tour is a telling nod to her career journey, one of only a few artists who has been able to live four decades in music.On 21 August 2017, Opera Australia announced that Arena would be taking on the lead role of Eva Perón in the 2018 Australian touring production of Evita, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics and book by Tim Rice, directed by Harold Prince, who has won an unprecedented 21 Tony Awards for directing on Broadway. Arena is cast opposite Paulo Szot, Brazilian operatic baritone, winner of a Tony Award for best actor on Broadway 2008, in the role of Juan Perón. The Evita Australian tour official opening night took place on 13 September 2018, at the Sydney Opera House in the Joan Sutherland Theatre, with the season running to 3 November 2018. The next venue on the Evita national tour leg will be at the Arts Centre Melbourne, from 5 December to 30 December 2018.