Watching Tina Turner perform is something you never forget – a combination of joy and chutzpah with an almost spiritual rush of emotion. Or as lifelong fan Oprah Winfrey recalls of her reaction to Tina’s early break-out shows: “Whatever that is … I want some of that. I got the spirit, no different to being in a church and you are moved.”
It wasn’t just the songs – powerful punchy rock anthems that swim around your head – but Tina’s incredible energy, a fountain of undiluted girl power that seemed to come from somewhere deep inside. And Tina bristled with a searing authenticity, too, her battle scars on show as she built the finest part of her career as a middle-aged woman with the courage to overcome the traumas and abuse of her past. This was something special.
Tina’s journey from a troubled little girl in Nutbush, Tennessee, to musical partner and wife of the talented and abusive Ike Turner, to solo rock goddess, is certainly awe-inspiring. And seeing that story-breaking box office records in famous theatres around the world in Tina – The Tina Turner Musical has been a profound experience for her.
“It has given me new-found peace about my early life, which I didn’t expect when I agreed to making the musical,” she tells The Weekly from her home in Switzerland. “Bringing it all together has made it whole and given me harmony. I wish Ike and my mother had been able to see the show.”
That Tina at 83 invokes the two people who hurt her most as she celebrates the success of the musical of her life is testament to the gentle humility that truly makes her tick. It seems incredible that this soulful woman who has been so abused, eschews any sense of bitterness.
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