It was the 1980s when a young Georges Antoni heard Tina Arena singing for the first time.

It was the decade in which Arena released her debut single, Turn Up The Beat.

She had been performing since the mid-70s, when she first appeared on the television show Young Talent Time at the age of eight.

Antoni's three older sisters were also huge fans of Arena and looked up to her, a memory that was vivid in his mind when he began discussions to create a portrait of the performer.

That portrait — two photographs hung side-by-side as a diptych — is now hanging on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery to mark 50 years of Arena's career.

"I gasped, because it's not what I expected," Arena said of seeing the portrait for the first time.

"But I didn't really then know what to expect either.

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