Just Me is the fifth studio album by Australian singer Tina Arena, released in Australia on 12 November 2001 by Columbia Records. Arena co-wrote tracks on the album with Desmond Child, Robbie Neville, Mark Hudson, Victoria Shaw and Peter-John Vettese. Debuting in the Australian ARIA Albums Chart top ten, Just Me was Arena's third top ten album but the album was considered a commercial failure. Two singles taken from the album; "Soul Mate #9" and "Dare You to Be Happy" were not major hits, while the third single "Symphony of Life" became Arena's fifth top ten hit.
Writing and content
The album was written mainly in Europe and the United States. Arena worked with different collaborators than on her previous albums including Nile Rodgers, Peter-John Vettese, Lukas Burton and Paul Manners, which Arena hoped would strengthen her appeal to both old and new fans. At the time, Arena stated "I set out to make a record that reflected all of the personal, sonic and lyrical growth that I believe I have undergone in recent years. The only master plan, the only objective I set for myself, was to experiment and write the freshest sounding record I could - one that was truly an indication of where I am at in my life right now." The album fell out of the top twenty in its second week and spent only four weeks in the top fifty and twelve weeks in the top one hundred. The album was less successful in Switzerland, where it debuted at number seventy-four and peaked at number sixty-seven spending just three weeks in the top one hundred.
Track listing
Personnel
- Tina Arena – vocals
- Richard Bailey – photography
- Ian Dench – guitar
- John Fortis – bass guitar
- Erik Godal – keyboard, programming
- Simon Hale – conductor, string arrangements
- Richard Hilton – keyboard, shaker, electric sitar, programming, mixing, engineer
- Paul Manners – bass, guitar, percussion, vocals, mixing, engineer
- Nile Rodgers – guitar, electric sitar
- Sylver Logan Sharp – background vocals
- Sacha Skarbek – strings, keyboard
- Peter-John Vettese – keyboard, background vocals, programming, string arrangements
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ Weekly chart performance for Just Me
!scope="col"|Chart (2001–2003)
!scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ Year-end chart performance for Just Me
!Chart (2002)
!Position
|-
!scope="row"|French Albums (SNEP)
| style="text-align:center;"|137
|}
Certifications
Release history
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ Release history and formats for Just Me
! Country
! Date
! Label
! Format
! Catalog
|-
! scope="row"| Australia
| 12 November 2001
| rowspan="2"| Columbia
| rowspan="2"| CD
| 5046142000
|-
! scope="row"| France
| 16 November 2001
|
|}