The hair, the voice, those rumours that her legs were once insured for $3.2 million. There were certain things everyone knew about Tina Turner at the peak her fame in the 1980s and early 1990s. But the singer, who has died aged 83 after a long illness, was more than just another pop star. She was a survivor of domestic abuse and one of the first African American performers to conquer an American music industry that held non-white artists at arm’s length as recently as the early MTV era.
She was also full of surprises. Only Tina Turner could go from starring opposite Mel Gibson in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985 (she belted out its epic theme to boot) to working with Bono and The Edge on their imperious 1995 Bond barnstormer, GoldenEye.
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That wasn’t her first experience with Irish musicians. In 1986, as her great 1980s revival was gathering pace, she covered Paul Brady’s Paradise is Here on the Break Every Rule album. The tune was not the hit it deserved to be, but Turner loved it and would encore with it on the subsequent tour. She heard it as a feminist anthem, which was how she sang it, too.
“That song can fit a lot of women,” she said. “You think that your life and all that is wonderful is outside of here. But it’s right here at home. Paradise is Here. You tell me how many women can’t relate to that? Paul must have written it about his wife. It feels very much like something he has dealt with. I was really trying to get that conversation going between man and woman. I’m hoping people will sit down and listen to the words. There are such wonderful messages here.”
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For Irish fans, there will also be the memory of the incredible live shows she gave here. Turner played Croke Park in 1996, where she brought down the curtains with her take on Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy. She was back in 2009 for four dates at what is now 3Arena.
GoldenEye and Paradise Is Here testify to her stunning range as a singer. The Bono-Edge number is a cheesy stab at Shirley Bassey-style retro pop. But Turner elevates it with vocals that out-Bassey Shirley Bassey. With Paradise Is Here, she goes in the opposite direction, picking up on the thread of tenderness running through the lyrics and transforming the material into something fragile and heartbreaking.
Throughout her life in music, strength and fragility were the flip sides of Turner. As the “Queen of Rock ‘n Roll”, the artist born Tina Bullock had grown up a sharecropper’s daughter in Nutbush, Tennessee.
[ Tina Turner: her 20 greatest songs and performances – rankedOpens in new window ]
She was discovered singing in the nightclubs of St Louis by Ike Turner, an ambitious local band leader. Musically they were mesmerised by each other: she would later recall falling “into a trance” watching him play. Tina was soon singing with his band, and then they became a duo, Ike & Tina Turner. Their first major hit was 1966′s River Deep, Mountain High, produced by superstar producer (and later convicted killer) Phil Spector, who considered it his best work.
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But behind the glamour, Ike was violent and controlling. Decades before the MeToo movement, at the height of their popularity, she risked everything by walking out of the marriage and speaking publicly about the abuse. “I wanted to stop people from thinking that Ike & Tina was so positive, that we were such a great team,” she told the 2021 documentary, Tina. “So I thought, if nothing else, at least people know.”
Splitting with Ike was the making of both her personality and creativity. Unshackled, Turner became a superstar. Her voice had always been a force of nature – breathy and intimate yet capable of hurricane-force strength. Long before present-day belters such as Adele, she could conjure tidal emotions while making it feel as if she was singing to you alone – a powerful gift that illuminated 1980s hits such as The Best, What’s Love Got To Do With It? and Private Dancer (written by Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler, who would subsequently introduce her to Paradise Is Here).
“Thank you for being the inspiration to millions of people around the world for speaking your truth and giving us the gift of your voice,” tweeted singer Bryan Adams after her death was announced.
He was speaking not just on behalf of himself but of fans for whom Turner was more than a singer – she was a survivor who had conquered the world on her terms and left behind an unsurpassable parade of torch songs.
