Simply the Best

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

Simply the Best

A tribute to the legendary Tina Turner, remembered not only for her profound impact on music, but for her efforts to elevate LGBTQ+ fans to the forefront.

BY STEVE PAFFORD PHOTOS BY LISA KANEMOTO

When Tina Turner passed in May 2023, there was, in the title of a song that kicks o Queen Of Rock ’n Roll, an exhaustive new collection of her work, a “whole lotta love” for the bewigged woman who powered an incredible career spanning seven decades. But that should come as no surprise: her influence was so profound it helped pave the way for women in rock, and it’s indubitably the case that musical history would be all the poorer without the record-breaking achievements of this legendary lady.

Born Anna Mae Bullock in November 1939 Nutbush TN, Tina’s story is like that classic song: river deep, mountain high – a tale of ambition, talent, desire; dependencies, violence, and despair. In other words, it’s the usual showbiz tattle, right?

Not quite.

Blessed with a timeless spirit and effervescent energy, this is a woman who overcame insuperable odds, bursting from cotton-pickin’ poverty and the confines of an abusive marriage to first husband Ike Turner, a malevolent Mississippian who, to give him his due, is regarded as being responsible for the first ever rock ‘n’ roll record, 1951’s Rocket 88.

Fronting the infernal Ike & Tina Turner Revue, Tina was an R&B star from the 1950s till the 1970s. While Turner was adored for her ery voice, with its bluesy in ections and soaring vibrato, the music — from the incendiary cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Proud Mary to her self-written Nutbush City Limits — was only one element of her in uence; equally signi cant was her gutsy take on the image of the female pop star, with her tight skirts and wildcat shimmy-shaking routines evoking a stormy romanticism. There was danger in her voice as well as vulnerability. Not an easy combination to pull o .

After years in the wilderness, by 1983 her label EMI-Capitol considered Tina too dated and, crucially too old to make a return, a mere club act on the ‘chicken in a basket’ cabaret circuit. Comparatively, Aretha and Cher, three and seven years her junior, were in the doldrums, although Diana Ross, five years younger than Turner, had maintained her stardom by never being away, thus she’d been playing to arena sized crowds and carried them with her wherever she went.

However, Tina Turner knew her audience. In 1982 she did something extraordinary by performing at the inaugural Gay Games hosted in San Francisco, when other artists wouldn’t. The tournament marked a watershed moment for LGBTQ+ athletes and sports stars globally, and this iconic ally to the queer community was there to see us through it.

Not only that but in 2000 — i.e. two years before The Netherlands became the first country to enshrine marriage equality in law — Tina voiced her support for same-sex unions, saying, “I think that men marrying men, and women marrying women, is a wonderful thing. I think that it’s God’s blessings on them, that’s what I think.”

Talking of trailblazing swingers, when the great Dame, David Bowie, casually mentioned to the label he was o “to see my favorite singer tonight”, the bosses, anxious to keep their new star signing happy, teamed her with ultra-modernist studioheads Heaven 17 on a gleaming soul-meets-synths redo of Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together. A huge hit in Britain, it was this ‘electro-soul’ approach which Annie Lennox would take to another level with Eurythmics, and one that, sadly, Turner didn’t pursue.

The dramatic, bravura transformation demanded an album be cut immediately. Recorded in just two months in London, the all-conquering Private Dancer album landed in 1984, and buoyed by a string of radio-slaying singles, it went on to worldwide sales of over 20 million. Now that’s one way to make a comeback.

That a middle-aged black woman from Tennessee could enjoy such a huge renaissance was a profoundly positive moment in music history, not to mention the biggest and most improbable comebacks in the history of showbiz that unlikely to be bettered

Suddenly she found herself competing with a coruscating quadrumvirate of East-ish Coast chart-slayers Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince and Bruce Springsteen. Acquiring the status of solo megastar with a string of hits (What’s Love Got To Do With It,

We Don't Need Another Hero, The Best to name just three) and triumphant tours that resulted in Tina becoming the first female performer to sell out football stadiums across the globe before La Ciccone jumped on that pointy bra’d bandwagon.

The record-breaking relaunch assured, Tina continued to smash records and help remove the glass ceiling of what women in pop music could achieve, and her Break Every Rule tour is still the biggest series of concerts, by attendance, for a female artist ever, bringing in almost 4 and a half million people.

In 1988 came the crowning glory, when Tina entered the record books for the solo artist with the largest paying audience in history with a crowd of over 182,000 people in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On a personal note, Tina remains the only artist to have recorded with my two favorite Brit acts, Bowie and Pet Shop Boys, and sing a Bond theme (the majestic GoldenEye, written by Irish rockers U2). For context, Lulu, the Scottish minstrel who penned I Don’t Wanna Fight, Tina’s last US Top 10 hit in the US, only ever managed two of the three, as did ole Madge.

In the 2000s the now semi-retired singer battled a stroke, cancer, and a kidney transplant, so it was understandable she retreated with her second hubby Erwin Bach to her grand villas in the South of France and Switzerland, occasionally putting in a cameo appearance on the opening nights of Tina, the musical of her life story currently touring the world. No matter. Tina Turner’s legacy as one of the great singers of all time is unassailable, a symbol of so many things — sex appeal, resilience, empowerment, and a unique vocalist that infused her songs with so much personality she could elevate even the most pedestrian pop into something special.

From tears to triumph, the power of Tina’s story is one of the most heartening comebacks ever: overcoming adversity, breaking down age and race barriers to become the female performer to sell more tickets than any, and one of the biggest selling artists in music history. Simply the best inspiration to women and men everywhere.

STEVE PAFFORD is an English journalist, actor, and author of the acclaimed book BowieStyle. Having trained from the floor up in UK music titles Q, MOJO and Record Collector, he’s had his work featured in a wide variety of British, American, and Australian media including the BBC, CNN, The Independent and the New York Times. Steve divides his time between Australia and the south of France.