On the day before her 48th birthday, Tina Arena released her eleventh studio album, titled simply “Eleven“ AMNplify’s Pauli Dee sat down to ask Tina about the album, how the music industry has changed and as always, some very random questions to conclude the interview in his “One random Minute“.

Pauli: Hi Tina, how are you going?

Tina: Good Pauli, how are you?

Pauli: Yeah I’m really well thanks, thanks for chatting with me. I know you’ve been a busy woman lately. I was looking at your Facebook page today & I noticed some posts from Dubai and some photo shoots in France, so my first question has to be “Where in the world is Tina Arena today?”

Tina: She’s in Sydney… Hahahaha. Yeah back in Australia!

Pauli: Hahaha, return to Oz – how elaborate! – and today’s news is that you’re about to be inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. How does that make you feel?

Tina: Yeah – it makes me feel good and old! hahaha

Pauli: Well I would have thought it would have happened a long time ago, to be honest with you.

Tina: No! I think it’s happening at the right time Pauli. I trust the universal timing & I think it’s great! I’m really tickled pink by it absolutely.

Pauli: You’ve always been loved here, but you’ve found a large portion of your success internationally. Was it a conscious decision to focus your efforts here in Australia at this time?

Tina: I’ve been away for a long time & slowly over the last 4 or 5 years we’ve been making the move to come and spend more time here so over the last 4 years, as a family, we’ve spent 6 months & over in Australia, so … I’ve just felt like it’s time to spend more time here & be a little bit more permanent here after being away for so long, but going away too was also part of my journey, it was an important part of my artistic & personal growth & nothing I regret, I’ve had some of the greatest times and am continuing to have some really wonderful times in Europe, so it’s not like I’m gonna turn my back on Europe, you know, at the end of the day, I have work there and it’s work that I’m very interested in honouring… so you know – that’s what it is…

Pauli: So back here, some exciting work.. Your eleventh studio album #Eleven is OUT NOW!

Tina: YES! Some very exciting work – have you heard the record?

Pauli: Yes, I have! I’ve had it on repeat for a couple of days & I’ve gotta say I Love it!

Tina: Oh good!

Pauli: So well done! …My personal fave is “When you’re ready”

Tina: ”When you’re ready to leave, “ yeah …

Pauli: Yeah, personally, it touches me, I really like that one, but anyhow…
Obviously it’s entitled”Eleven” because it’s your 11th studio album, is there any other significances around the number 11 or is it just purely because of that?

Tina: Well… I’m the 1st of the 11th & 11 is a number that’s very prominent in my life… There’s a lot of 11’s in my life so I thought “OK, oh well, it’s my eleventh record, elevens everywhere I look…I may as well call it “Eleven!” Hahahahha – It wasn’t too difficult to come up with the title of that one! Hahaha

Pauli: Hahahaha, so that’s a nice birthday present, the release of your new album the day before your birthday!

Tina: Yeah absolutely!

Pauli: Did you plan it that way?

Tina: No, it was just kind of the timing, the way it worked!

Pauli: Well it makes for a nice birthday!

Tina: Yeah I hope so!

Pauli: You’ve collaborated with some well-known Aussies on the album.
There’s Evermore’s Jon Hume, Hayley Warner & Tania Doco as well. How do these collaborations come about?

Tina: Well they’re my friends! Tania Doco’s a good mate of mine.

Pauli: You haven’t worked with her before?

Tina: No. Tania and I? No. This was the first time we worked together. We’ve known each other for a little while and we’re good mates. We’re good girlfriends, so that was fantastic and Hayley Warner’s a great talent. She’s just released her single too, in America. She’s a serious talent. I just love the spirit of these people.

Pauli: So the old wives tale of not mixing business with pleasure isn’t true then?

Tina: Oh it depends who with darl! Hahaha It just really depends on the creature! You just try not to blur those lines. I highly recommend you not!

Pauli: Well obviously it’s worked here because this album’s amazing and it’s worked really well.

Tina: Well we all have really honest relationships. There’s no holds barred there. I don’t have time for people to concoct stories or tip-toe. I’m much happier with someone being honest. That’s just what I demand as a human being, is transparency.

Pauli: and speaking of relationships, Vince Colosimo is in the video for “I want to love you” How was working with him?

Tina: I’ve known Vince for a long time, we’ve been mates for… probably a couple of decades now and when the whole idea of this video came from Paola, who’s a friend of mine that wrote and directed it, I said “Look, I’m thinking Colosimo” and she sort of went “WOW! – I’ll get back to you” and she obviously went off and did a bit of research and looked at some of his work and came back and said she thought it would be really beautiful to see Vince in a bit of a different light, because everyone only ever sees him as the “Mafioso” and there’s so much more to that man.

Pauli: Well you both did a great job with the video.

Tina: Yeah well we get along, you know, we have a friendship so it makes a difference and he’s very supportive of me and he totally understood what it is we were trying to do and I just love the beautiful sensitivity and that complexity that he bought to the video as an actor, I just thought it was beautiful to see. He was vulnerable and beautiful and very empowering.

Pauli: He did a great job! ..and you’re no stranger to the camera, would you consider doing something on the big screen in the future?

Tina: Maybe! … I haven’t ruled it out!