Tina Turner

‘My Legacy Is That I Stayed the Course… From Beginning to the End Because I Believed in Something Inside Me’

- Michelle Davies

She famously overcame hardship and domestic abuse to become a global star. Now the music legend’s incredible story is set to be retold in a new West End show

When a neighbour invited schoolgirl Tina Turner to her house to watch television because Turner’s family didn’t own one, she was overjoyed. Not only was the invitation itself momentous (this was the 40s in America’s Deep South where black people were still segregated and her neighbour was white) but it opened her eyes to a world she never knew existed. ‘I didn’t know anything about being a star until the white people allowed us to come down and watch their television once a week,’ Turner later recalled. ‘That’s when I saw Loretta Young [an actress who was nominated for two Best Actress Oscars in the 40s, winning one of them in 1947] on TV. I thought that some day I’d have a star on my dressing room.’

As history proved, she got her star. Turner grew up to become one of the 20th century’s most successful recording artists, earning eight Grammys and holding the record for being the highest grossing female concert performer. She is also the woman who famously clawed her way back to the top after fleeing an abusive marriage with only 36 cents to her name, an inspiring story that is now being immortalised in a new West End stage show, Tina: The Musical.