The Big Hello
Thank you, Mister Toastmaster,
Ladies and Gentlemen, with the help of her autobiography “Now I Can Dance” and her numerous interviews and songs, I would like to tell you the story of how a singer by the name of Tina Arena found her voice after so many years in the music industry.
The year is 1990 and Tina Arena has just released her first album as a solo artist: “Strong as Steel”. After years of singing commercial jingles and performing on “Young Talent Time” Tina was hoping that this would put her on the path to become an adult musician. To break off the shackles of “Tiny Tina” from her “Young Talent Time” days and become just “Tina Arena”.
Tina Arena, born Filipina Lydia Arena, had come a long way since those Talent Time days. Although grateful for the opportunities that the show had given her, she was, in her own words, ready to “think about the next chapter”. A lot of hard work went into the next years as she went from a young teenager into an adult woman. This Moonee Ponds lady started singing in some pubs, opening for Lionel Richie, and meeting with music producers and songwriters. Songwriters who would write her such songs such as “Close to My Heart” and “Woman’s Work”. All culminating in her debut album “Strong as Steel”. Which charted a respectful 17th on the Australian charts.
However, Tina was still not satisfied. Whilst happy with all the hard work that had gone into the album, she knew that she wanted to write her own songs. She didn’t want to become a puppet dancing to someone else’s tunes. To do that though she needed to stretch herself outside her comfort zone.
Which is why she moved to Los Angeles to learn the art of song-writing. Meting up with such people like Rick Price, David Tyson, Pam Reswick, and Dean McTaggeret. people who helped her to develop her own voice. To sing her songs. The ones that came from her real-life experiences. Because like most artists, Tina felt connected to songs that reflected her own real-life experiences. That expressed her feelings.
So, with the help of these people she started to write some songs for her next album. Which she would call “Don’t Ask” because she, in her own words wanted people to “listen to the bloody record and judge it on its merits, without any preconceptions.”
She wrote ‘Wasn’t It Good’ with Heather Field and Robert Padre. A song that was about looking at the good parts of a failed relationship. Tina Arena looked back to past Summer holidays with the help of Christopher Ward and David Tyson with the classic “Sorrento Moon”. However, the big song, the one that would define her career was written by Pam Reswick, Steve Werfel, and of course Tina Arena. A little song by the name of “Chains”.
Tina, along with Pam and Steve, wrote the song “Chains” as a way of expressing her feelings of being tied down by her past. She had felt that people were still seeing her as “Tiny Tina” from her Young Talent Time days and she wanted to use this song to say that she wanted to move on from those days. And you can not only hear it in the words “I’m In Chains”, but in he way the song is structured. At the start the music is restrained, very low tempo and Tina is singing softly but with immense feeling. As the music continues the sound slowly increases, the tempo picks up, and Tina Arena starts to sing that little bit louder. By the end of the song Tina is singing her heart out, laying her heart and soul out to the public. Here was Tina, not Tiny Tina. A woman not a girl.
“Don’t Ask” became a highly successful album selling two million copies and netting Tina Arena six ARIA awards. Including Tina becoming the first solo female artist to win album of the year. And whilst those Wikipedia-sourced statistics are impressive they don’t tell the full story of how she found her voice after years of being in “Chains”.
That concludes my speech, Mister Toastmaster.
my last toastmasters speech
