Tina Arena: Unravel Me reveals the artist behind the accolades, and the challenges she’s surmounted

The new documentary Tina Arena: Unravel Me celebrates the groundbreaking Australian performer’s 50 year career and gives an insight into the person behind the music, awards and accolades including an Order of Australia, the French National Order of Merit and the National Portrait Gallery’s commission by Georges Antoni titled Tina, 2025.

Directed by Adrian Russell Wills and written and produced by Jessica Carrera, the documentary interweaves contemporary interviews with Arena and her friends, family, colleagues and peers, with home video, archival footage and high profile moments.

From Pina to Tina Arena

Filippina “Pina” Arena, the proud daughter of Italian migrant parents, became “Tina Arena” on Australian prime time show Young Talent Time. Her first appearance was in 1974 at seven-years-old.

As the show’s founder, the late Johnny Young, explained, “I didn’t think Filippina was a real show business name, Tina Arena really flowed”.

To be fair, it was something he’d experienced himself, born Johnny Benjamin de Jong.

“It was a pretty racist time, let’s call a spade a spade,” Arena says, looking back at the those early days. “Being Italian meant, to me growing up, being misunderstood. And remember, I wasn’t just the girl next door, I was the ethnic girl next door. Yeah, it was brutal.”

Arena found national fame through Young Talent Time, joining the cast and performing weekly on the show for six years, earning the nickname “Tiny Tina”. In the documentary she explains she loved the work but eventually became exhausted and eager to try new things.

“[Some] wanted to see me as that little girl who never grew up, and all I wanted to do was just transition [to adulthood],” she says in the documentary.

Leaving behind Tiny Tina

It took a few years for Arena to build the right team to make her career-defining album Don’t Ask, in 1994. With singles Chains, Sorrento Moon (I Remember), Heaven Help My Heart and Wasn’t It Good, Don’t Ask was eventually certified over 10x Platinum by ARIA.

The album also broke the industry’s narrow view of her. As Molly Meldrum explained, “finally radio didn’t feel ashamed playing Tina Arena. They weren’t saying ‘Oh My God, she’s a Young Talent Timer’ – they were playing her because it’s a good single”.

With Don’t Ask, Arena became the first woman in ARIA history to win best album. Recalling the event, Arena says in the documentary:

"When I found out […] I was elated and crushed all in the same sentence. What do you mean, what about all those women before me? I started to realise that I was surrounded by way too much testosterone."

The documentary shows archival footage of Janet Jackson presenting Arena with the award, but it has a telling typo in it: the album is misnamed Chains rather than Don’t Ask.

It was an easy mistake, perhaps, for a rushed production crew to make. But it’s a shame the mistake is repeated in the documentary, without comment, 30 years on.

It’s hard to imagine this kind of oversight in a documentary about AC/DC, and it suggests that women’s achievements still don’t attract the same level of care as their male counterparts.

A new life and audience in France

Following an invitation to work in France, Arena moved there in the late ‘90s and built a new career.

In this section of the documentary, Arena talks about learning a new language and building her family, including the birth of her son, who she calls her greatest achievement.

At the end of this section, the Arena of today speaks in French to her fans in France, thanking them for even the “shitty moments”, saying this is where you learn.

Arena’s legacy as it continues

Given it is 2026, it’s a shame there aren’t more women in this documentary.

It’s not that they weren’t present: vocal coach Voila Ritchie, for example, was instrumental in landing little Pina the Young Talent time gig, yet we know very little about her. It might have been interesting to hear from contemporaries like Christine Anu, who was nominated alongside Arena for best album the year she won.

Arena’s influence on the fans that followed her as she grew, and on the next generation of artists, could also have been drawn out more. The documentary gestures to this influence near the end, as The Veronicas and Jessica Mauboy, who were part of Arena’s 2015 ARIA Hall of Fame induction ceremony, talk about how she inspired them.

An incredible performance at that ceremony was made even better by Arena’s acceptance speech. Following a short introduction from Kylie Minogue, Arena made a special point to:

"acknowledge the ladies over 40, still in the game, in a big way […] keep doing what you do best, ladies, because we will decide when it’s time for us to stop, thank you."

Tina Arena: Unravel Me is in cinemas now.