Tina Arena has stunned the audience at the ARIAs with a passionate speech about sexism and ageism in the music industry.
Tina, 47, was inducted into the ARIA’s Hall of Fame by her old friend, Kylie Minogue, and Australian tour de France cyclist Cadel Evans who, like Tina, lives part of the year in France.
She used her speech to ‘acknowledge that ladies over 40 are still in the game’.
Tina reeled off the names of female stars Kylie, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez and Annie Lennox, still performing in their late 40s and 50s.
“We will decide when it’s time for us to stop,” she said.
Tina’s performance of her smash hit, Chains, with Jessica Mauboy and the Veronicas was the only all-female show on the night.
Kylie told the audience that she had been inspired as a young girl by seeing Tina sing MacArthur Park on Young Talent Time.
“You’ve shown the world how it’s done for the last four decades,’ Kylie said.
The issue of sexism was also raised by Triple J breakfast co-host Matt Okine, who won an ARIA in a category – Best Comedy Album – in which there were no female nominees.
Matt used his speech to raise the gender gap – but strangely, his speech got cut from the live broadcast and can only be seen on the ARIA’s Twitter feed.
“I didn’t feel great reading that list of people,” Matt told the audience.
“I thought, hold on there’s no women in my category. People might say that’s something you would say for attention, but I feel like, ‘what should I do, just be passive’?
“A lot of guys my age think you’re doing enough by not doing anything bad.”
Ten cut the speech to take commercials. Returning from a commercial break, it was acknowledged that Okine had won, but his speech was not broadcast.
