TIM OMAJI

The singer, writer and performer sits down with Harriet Sim to talk '80s music, splurges and taking on Ike Turner

- Harriet Sim

You’re starring in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. What’s your earliest memory of Tina and her music?

The “[Simply] The Best” ads for the NRL. I grew up as a Canberra boy, so the Raiders were my team by default. It was a very special time for everyone in Canberra when Tina came out. 

You’re playing Ike Turner. What did you learn about him through this production? 

How much of a musical genius he was and the tragedy of his upbringing. Growing up as a child in the deep South in the 1940s and ’50s would have been tough. Among the dark elements of his life, Ike had a very complex and layered world.

And Tina? 

I didn’t know that it was Ike who gave Tina her name. I always thought that she had been famous from a young age. I didn’t realise that her greatest success happened in her forties, which back then was unheard of in pop music.