IT has been more than eight  years since Tina Arena last performed in Canberra but now she’s bringing her band, along with  a string quartet, back to town. 

Fanfare Records recently released Arena’s “LIVE Symphony of Life” DVD and Double CD. Recorded at Hamer Hall in Melbourne earlier this year, the double CD features 22 tracks with new arrangements of all her famous  hits as well as five previously unreleased songs.

Many people don’t associate Arena primarily with musicals, but at age of 17, the girl from Edna Everage’s home suburb Moonee Ponds was spotted on “Young Talent Time” and   cast by singer/director John Diedrich’s Australian production of the Fellini musical “Nine”, then went on to play the Narrator in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, Esmeralda, in the UK production of “Notre Dame de Paris, and Sally Bowles in “Cabaret”  in the West End.

These days we’re more inclined to think of her in connection with her series of duets with Andrea Bocelli or for her performance with  Italian rock singer, Zucchero on “Senza una Donna,” or  her “Mask of Zorro” hit with Marc Anthony, “I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You.”

But to Arena herself, it was her performance on stage in New York with her childhood idol, the late disco Queen, Donna Summer, well, that was “just magical.”

Tina Arena at Canberra Theatre, 8pm, Friday, March 1, bookings to www.canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700