Tina Arena has opened up on the “excruciating” health issue that forced her to cancel her highly-anticipated tour last year.
Speaking on the Two Girls One Pod podcast, the Chains singer detailed why she had to pull the plug on her Love Saves tour at the last minute.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Tina Arena’s shock health announcement.
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Arena, 56, had performed just two dates on the Australian leg of the tour — one in Sydney and another in Perth — in 2023 when she had to fly home, experiencing “absolute excruciating pain”.
“I’ll never forget it,” she told podcast host Yvie Jones.
“I was in ICU for about six, nearly seven days.
“My kidney was very close to exploding because it was highly, highly infected.
“I wasn’t aware of how bad it actually was.”
Arena was still keen to get back on tour — until doctors told her that was going to be impossible.
“So the doctors, I actually looked at them and said, ‘I’m on the road, I’ve got 10 days to recover’,” she recalled.
“And the doctor looked at me and said, ‘You can cancel your tour’.”
Arena added that she believed things got bad after “many years of buildup of extraordinary pain”.
“Your body sort of just goes, ‘Enough, enough, it’s time for you to draw the curtains and just concentrate on you’,” she said.
Arena made the shock announcement that her tour was postponed via social media.
Sharing a black-and-white photo of her band behind the scenes, she wrote: “Hi everyone, for the very first time, I have to postpone the rest of my Australian shows.”
“Believe me when I say, it was a hard decision,” she continued.
“But remember, health always comes first. Therefore, to ensure it won’t happen again … here we are.”
At the time, Sunrise entertainment editor Peter Ford said the decision to postpone was significant because Arena “doesn’t miss shows, she’s old school — if you have a gig booked you do it”.
“On her Instagram post, she actually said that this is the first time ever (that she has cancelled). Now, how long has Tina been around … 40 years?” he said.
“Fingers crossed she is getting good care and the attention that she needs.”
Arena has since recovered from the painful illness and is preparing to go back on the road again next month.
Her first performance will be at the Adelaide Festival Centre on April 6, followed by two concerts in Melbourne on April 26 and 27, and a gig on the Gold Coast on May 11.
