Her career began at the age of seven when she was selected as a regular performer for the music television program Young Talent Time. As a child Arena attracted attention for the power of her voice, which was considered remarkable for such a young child.
She was born to Italian parents and has a sister, Nancy (born 1961). Often billed as "Tiny Tina Arena", she was seen on weekly television singing and dancing the current pop hits. The show's policy was to promote talented children, and at the age of sixteen team members would leave, ostensibly to follow an adult career. As one of the show's youngest performers, Arena's nine year stint was also one of the show's longest. "Strong As Steel" Like most of the children who left the show, Arena carried with her a stigma that made it difficult to be taken seriously as an adult vocalist, and for a short time she contemplated ending her career, and found employment with an insurance company. She was invited to support Lionel Richie on his Australian tour, but despite this success and the profile it gave her, record companies were unwilling to offer her a recording contract. Arena persevered, playing nightclubs in Melbourne and in several stage musicals, before finally being offered a contract.
Her album Strong as Steel, released in 1990, contained one major hit single, the uptempo dance track, "I Need Your Body", whose accompanying video demonstrated Arena as a sexy and confident adult. The contrast between her adult image and that of the seven year old child she had been when she first became famous attracted considerable publicity in Australia, but some elements of the media insisted that she was little more than a novelty act. Despite the success of the further singles, The Machine's Breaking Down and the Diane Warren title track, the album failed to establish her as a major act, and she relocated to the United States.
After signing a contract with Sony Music, Arena released the album Don't Ask in 1994. It became one of the highest selling albums of the year in Australia and provided her with her first substantial hit single "Chains". The song also reached the Top 10 in the United Kingdom and Top 40 in the United States. Arena's career was said to be a priority of record executive Tommy Mottola who envisioned her achieving the level of success of Cรฉline Dion or Mariah Carey, but the album failed to sell well in the US, and Mottola moved on to other projects. Other hits followed in Australia and Europe, including "Heaven Help My Heart", "Wasn't It Good" and "Sorrento Moon". The album won Arena five ARIA Awards for "Album of the Year", "Song of the Year" ("Chains"), "Pop Release of the Year" ("Chains") and "Best Female Vocalist", as well as a special award for "Highest Selling Female Artist in Australian History".
After more than twenty years she was finally accepted as a credible performer by both the record buying public and the Australian music industry.
Her next album In Deep (1997), produced by Foreigner's Mick Jones contained a cover version of their hit "I Want To Know What Love Is" (with backing vocals by the song's original vocalist Lou Gramm) and another major hit single "Burn". In Deep was the highest selling Australian album of the year. During this time she recorded the theme song for the film The Mask of Zorro, a duet with Marc Anthony titled "I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You". This song was highly successful in Europe, and Arena embraced European culture, recording several songs in French and relocating temporarily to France. During this period her greatest successes were these French recordings and they were major hits in France. A repackaged version of the In Deep album including the new French versions, and a cover version of the Edith Piaf song "Les Trois Cloches" was a major hit throughout Europe and reached number 3 in France.
Her 2001 album Just Me was a moderate success and included such hit singles as "Soul Mate #9", "Dare You To Be Happy" and "Symphony of Life". In 1998, Arena was invited to perform the role of Esmerelda in the West End production of Notre Dame de Paris in London. In 2000, she performed to the largest audience of her career at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Later that year she received an outstanding achievement ARIA Award for her career achievement, with the award also specifically recognising her success in France.
In 2003 she was recruited by Dance DJ Ray Roc to sing on his single "Never (Past Tense)". The song was one of the year's longest running hits on the Hot Dance Club Songs charet where it reached number one.
Arena completed her contract with Sony Music in the Fall of 2004, releasing a Greatest Hits album and a Greatest Hits DVD marking the end of her association with them. She was also released her Greatest Hits Live which features 90 minutes of LIVE concert footage recorded during her 2004 Greatest Hits tour in Australia.
After resigning a record deal with Columbia France, Arena recorded a new entirely French album, called Un Autre Univers (Another Universe). The album was co-written by Arena and an assortment of French and English writers and producers. The first single "Aimer jusqu'a l'impossible" (Love Till The Impossible) received airplay across French radio and debuted on the French national charts at #3. On November 17th 2005, Arena and partner Vincent Mancini became parents, with the birth of a son, Gabriel Joseph, in Paris.Arena's sixth studio album titled Songs of Love & Loss was recorded independently and self-financed as she no longer had a recording contract in Australia. The album was eventually released on 1 December 2007 after a new deal was struck with EMI Australia. The record was primarily made up of torch songs originally recorded by women in the 1960s and 70s such as Dusty Springfield and Diana Ross and the arrangements featured a full string orchestra conducted by Simon Hale. A promotional tour of Australia in early November included appearances on Dancing with the Stars and Sunrise. Five concert dates backed by a 35 piece orchestra were held in DecemberโJanuary: three at the Sydney Opera House and two at Melbourne's Hamer Hall. The album peaked at #3 on the ARIA Top Albums chart and was nominated for the ARIA Award for Best Selling Album.
While Arena was still promoting Songs of Love & Loss in Australia, her first French single in two years, "Entends-tu le monde?", was made available to French radio. The video was shot in and around Sydney during the promotional tour of her home country and went on heavy rotation on French music television channels upon its release. The song was the first single from her sophomore French album 7 vies which was released on 28 January 2008 and debuted at #12 on the official French charts, her highest debut ever in the country. The single "Entends-tu le monde?" was physically released on 11 February 2008 and debuted at #10 on the French charts, becoming her sixth top ten single there.
August 2008 saw Arena performing with Andrea Bocelli during his Australian tour. The two performed well received duets of "The Prayer", "Canto della Terra" and a cover of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love". Prior to the tour she had been in the UK recording her eighth studio album Songs of Love & Loss 2, which was released on 15 November 2008.[4] For this album, her vocals were recorded live with the London Studio Orchestra, again conducted by Hale.[5]
Arena & Alison Jiear at Sydney Mardi Gras 2009.Alongside fellow Australian singer and songwriter Darren Hayes, Arena appeared as a guest judge during the London auditions of Australian Idol's sixth season. The episode featuring Arena and Hayes aired on 27 August 2008. She again appeared as a guest judge on 16 November while she was in Australia to promote Songs of Love & Loss 2.
Arena has been awarded a Knighthood of the Order of National Merit, the second highest civil honour in France, by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in February 2009 for her contributions to French culture.
In March 2009, Arena toured Australia in support of her album Songs of Love & Loss 2 and also appeared as a surprise guest performer at the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras party singing a medley of "Aimer jusqu'ร l'impossible" and "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" at 3 am accompanied by Alison Jiear on the latter.
2009 also saw the release of Arena's first French greatest hits album, The Best & le meilleur, and The Peel Me Sessions, an album of original material recorded in 2003 but rejected by her label at the time Sony.
A live CD and DVD was released in Australia in January 2010, The Onstage Collection, where the album peaked at #22 on the ARIA Charts.
Arena announced that she will release her seventh English studio album in 2011.
But I Lied
Tina Arena Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I could never tell you where it all went wrong
Because you were always right
I could spend a lifetime handing out the blame
I could call it all a big mistake
But love that we are given never goes away
It just changes every day
Guess I'll find it if I wait
'Cause every night I'm still pretending you're not on my mind
But I lied
There's nothing in your heart that I don't understand
I know yesterday has come and gone
Wishes are like water slipping through my hands
And I never could hold on
Truth is complicated when it comes to you
Every edge is dangerously rough
Nothing ever changes but my point of view
And today I'll call it love
As if calling was enough
And every day gets better, everything is almost fine
'Cause every night I'm still pretending you're not on my mind
But I lied, But I lied, But I lied
Stumbling through this journey is an uphill climb
So much effort gone and more to come
If I was to make love to you one more time
Would I wonder what I had done? Would I be the only one?
And every day gets better, everything is almost fine
'Cause every night I'm still pretending you're not on my mind
And every day gets better, everything is almost fine
'Cause every night I'm still pretending you're not on my mind
But I lied
Yeah yeah
The song โBut I Liedโ was written by Tina Arena, Marc Swersky, and Graham Stack. The song mainly talks about love and the complexity of relationships. The first verse talks about how the singer could never tell when things have gone wrong, even if it's always bright. The second verse shows the singer's understanding of their former loverโs heart, even if they can't understand the truth about their relationship. The chorus talks about how every day is getting better, but the singer is still pretending that their lover is not on their mind, but the truth is that they are lying. The third verse talks about the difficulty of moving on and the possibility of making love one more time.
The song displays the rollercoaster of emotions involved in a relationship, and how the truth and the lie can be difficult to distinguish. It shows how love can be complicated and how people can lie to themselves and deny their true feelings.
Line by Line Meaning
Wonder if it's always been this bright
I am questioning if life has always been this good or if I was blinded by the negative feelings of the past.
I could never tell you where it all went wrong
I cannot pinpoint the exact moment when things went wrong and our love started to deteriorate.
Because you were always right
You always seemed to have the upper hand in our relationship, and I never had the courage to question your authority.
I could spend a lifetime handing out the blame
I have the tendency to blame myself and others for the failed relationship, but it will not change the past.
I could call it all a big mistake
I could sum up our relationship as a big mistake, but at the end of the day, it was still love that brought us together.
But love that we are given never goes away
Even though our relationship has ended, the love we shared will always be present and alive inside us.
It just changes every day
Our love changes every day, evolving from the romantic love we once shared to something different but still meaningful.
Guess I'll find it if I wait
I'll find the type of love I'm looking for if I simply wait for it to find me instead of actively seeking it out.
And every day gets better, everything is almost fine
With time, I am getting better and healing from the heartbreak, but there is still a part of me that longs for what we lost.
'Cause every night I'm still pretending you're not on my mind
Every night, I pretend that I am over you and that you do not haunt my thoughts, but the truth is that you still have a hold on me.
There's nothing in your heart that I don't understand
I know you inside out, and I can look past the hurt and recognize that you did what you thought was best for us at the time.
I know yesterday has come and gone
I know our past is behind us, and we cannot change it no matter how much we wish to do so.
Wishes are like water slipping through my hands
Wishing for something that will never happen again is futile, and it feels like trying to hold onto water slipping through my hands.
And I never could hold on
I could not hold onto our relationship, and it slipped through my fingers, leaving me feeling powerless.
Truth is complicated when it comes to you
The truth of our relationship is complex, and there are multiple sides to the story, making it difficult to understand and reconcile.
Every edge is dangerously rough
Every aspect of our relationship is filled with sharp edges, making it challenging to navigate and come to a harmonious conclusion.
Nothing ever changes but my point of view
In the grand scheme of things, nothing ever changes, but a shift in my perspective can help me see our relationship differently and move forward.
And today I'll call it love
Even though love is complicated, painful, and messy, I will still call it love because it was a genuine emotion that we both shared.
As if calling was enough
Merely acknowledging it as love is not enough to change what happened between us or how we feel now.
Stumbling through this journey is an uphill climb
Moving on from our relationship is a difficult and uphill journey that involves many obstacles and challenges along the way.
So much effort gone and more to come
I have put in a lot of effort into trying to move on, but more work is required to completely let go of the past and embrace the future.
If I was to make love to you one more time
If we were to rekindle our relationship and have one final moment of intimacy, I would wonder if it was the right decision and if I would be the only one harboring feelings for you.
Would I wonder what I had done?
After having one final moment of intimacy, I would wonder if I had made the right choice and if it was worth it in the end.
Would I be the only one?
I wonder if I would be the only one still harboring feelings for you, or if you would also be feeling the same way.
Yeah yeah
An emotional expression to intensify the meaning behind the lyrics and music.
But I lied
Despite my attempts to convince myself that I have moved on, the truth is that I still long for what we lost, and I lied to myself all along.
But I lied, But I lied, But I lied
Repetition to emphasize the point that I have lied to myself multiple times about moving on from our relationship.
Lyrics ยฉ OBO APRA/AMCOS
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