When Tina Arena released Burn in 1997 – her highest-charting single in Australia – it forced her to acknowledge a devastating truth.

“I’d realised there was no one burning for me,” says the acclaimed singer in her new documentary film, Tina Arena: Unravel Me. “I started to open Pandora’s box … the emotional side of me started to collapse. I thought to myself, ‘You’re in the middle of a marriage breakdown.’ [Arena and her former manager, Ralph Carr, divorced in 1999.]

“My opinion didn’t count. It was like, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about’. You’re purposely kept on a treadmill because once a cash cow, always a cash cow.”

[Carr was convicted of rape in July. This interview was conducted before a suppression order, protecting his identity, was lifted on Monday.]

In Unravel Me, Arena, 58, recalls how her relationship with French artist Vincent Mancini – with whom she has a son, Gabriel – marked “the first time I was really loved as a grown woman”. Although they separated several years ago, they remain on good terms.

Arena’s career began in 1976 when she joined the cast of popular variety show Young Talent Time, hosted by Johnny Young. After 50 years in the entertainment industry, she is doing things her own way. “What I’m most proud of is the fact that I’ve survived,” she says.

Worst habit?

I’m far too critical of myself. I knew I had the capacity to sing, but I never thought I was good enough. When you spend your lifetime being compared to others, that’s one of the most psychologically damaging things they can do in the arts. [The blonde, fair-skinned women who were prominent on Australian TV in the 1970s] were everything I wasn’t – I was the polar opposite, and I grew up being severely bullied. I’ve learnt to protect myself and work really hard to ensure the force field around me cannot be penetrated. It took me a long time, but I have grown to love the woman that I am.

Greatest fear?

Being way too absorbed in the complexities of other people’s expectations. As an artist, I was encouraged to be someone I wasn’t.

The line that stayed with you?

“Be careful who you surround yourself with.” It was probably John Young who said that to me. He’s very much like a father figure; he wanted me to be as protected as I possibly could. There were times when he said, “Be careful, I don’t like that person” – and he was right. He taught me about discernment as a very little girl. I wasn’t able to intellectualise the term back then but it became much clearer down the track.

Biggest regret?

Some people that I collaborated with, [especially] one particular person – I’d prefer not to mention the person. There were some decisions I made that became very complicated. There are people you meet along the way where you just go, “I wish I hadn’t gone through that.” It was a very, very difficult process.

**Tell us about your turning point. **

October 2023, when I became very ill at the beginning of a tour. I got really sick with kidney stones and then became septic. I spent about a week in intensive care. That’s when I realised my body had shut down due to many years of intense stress. I was like, “You’ve got 10 days to get me well” and the doctors were like, “You don’t understand, this is going to take months.”

That was the point I realised I was close to facing something terminal. It changed my perspective on everything. I’ve got my son to raise and family and friends to be around. And I turned around and said, “I will not compromise any more with the way I work.” I got my power back and I’m no longer a slave to the f---ing system.

My job as an artist is to speak my mind, write about things I observe and to question. If people don’t like it, I’m perfectly comfortable with that.

The artwork or song you wish was yours?

I love classical; I’m a massive fan of Maria Callas. I probably would have studied opera if I could go again. To interpret something like Puccini’s Madama Butterfly on stage would be extraordinary.

My nonno Francesco was an opera aficionado. He had a record player on his balcony and the whole village of Valguarnera [in Sicily] knew that after mass, Francesco would play Rossini. I’m sure that’s where my love of classical music comes from.

If you could time travel, where would you go?

To the 1940s or ’50s, after the war when it was prosperous and interesting and things were starting to become available for people again. People could dream and achieve and there was much more freedom.

I’m not sure I would go into the future because if the present is any indication, it could be rather disastrous. I see the world moving in an unbelievably disappointing fashion, with a lot of people in big positions that are very disappointing. What has become very apparent is that the needs of the people are not at all on the list of their objectives.

Tina Arena: Unravel Me premieres at the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 12 and in cinemas nationally on August 27.

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