Tina Arena has criticised reality singing shows saying the instant gratification they provide belies the hard yards required to achieve success.
"There's still a sense of instant gratification associated with them and I really believe, at the end of the day, that a craft takes time to nurture," she told AAP from the back of a taxi as she dashed between meetings in Sydney.
"It doesn't matter even if you have 15 minutes of television airtime, there's a lot that's required behind the craft and not everybody can do it."
The singer knows what she's talking about.
She broke onto the scene in the 1970s on TV show Young Talent Time as Tiny Tina and worked hard for both credibility and commercial success.
It paid off when she found success in France and was voted the top female Australian singer by her peers in a national poll in 2013.
Her recent return to the public eye in Australia, after years abroad, was helped along by her successful stint on Dancing With The Stars in 2013.
"It's been about three very very big years for me. It's been non-stop but it's certainly been very beautiful," she says.
Arena will be in Australia for some time yet, kicking off a national tour in August with a performance at the opening of the Darwin Festival.
Arena remains wary of the media, which is reflected by her sometimes prickly manner during the interview.
"Popular culture has changed so much today. The viewer and the public are very demanding ... the media has set ... a standard with everybody wanting to know everything about everyone," she says.
The singer released album Reset last year, her first original album in 12 years.
"It's just about resetting everything in my life ... getting back to things that are ultimately the most important and that is family friends, and human experiences. I think that's for me the most inspiring thing about life," she says.
"I find everything else convoluted, complicated and not particularly inspiring."
*The Darwin Festival runs from August 7 - 24.
* Tina Arena's national tour runs from August 15 - September 17.
