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Tag: Tina Turner

  • BET Awards show honors Busta Rhymes, hip-hop’s 50 years and pays tribute to Takeoff and Tina Turner

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: The 2023 BET Awards celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with tributes to the genre’s earliest voices, late legends, and new talent during a show packed with spectacular performances that consistently felt like a party.

    Sunday’s biggest surprise came when Quavo and Offset, the surviving members of Migos, performed “Bad and Boujee” in front of an image of Takeoff, who died in a shooting last December.

    “BET, do it for Take,” the duo shouted near the beginning of their set, as their backdrop switched from the image of a space shuttle to one of Takeoff pointing in the air.

    Throughout the show, whether it was Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Biz Markie or Pop Smoke, performers and emcee Kid Capri paid homage to late hip-hop stars, often by quickly highlighting a taste of their best-known hits. In a show where few awards were given, Capri and BET kept the emphasis on the music.

    Busta Rhymes took home the night’s biggest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, handed to him by Swizz Beatz. The 12-time Grammy Award nominated rapper, producer, and pioneering hip-hop figure is widely regarded as one of the great MCs, with seven Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits to his name.

    Diddy, Janet Jackson, Chuck D, Missy Elliot, Pharrell Williams, and Mariah Carey recorded a video tribute to Rhymes.

    “Alright, Imma wear it on my sleeve. I do wanna cry,” Rhymes started his speech, as his eyes started to water. He talked about his six children, being kicked out from his hip-hop group Leaders of the New School, and learning how to rebuild by going into studios, sharing a cigar with whoever was in the studio, and “quickly whipping up a 16 bar verse. … By default, I pioneered the feature,” he said. “A lot of greatness from out people in our culture is by default. Because it’s just a magic we have.”

    An energetic tribute to Rhymes followed — the MC teamed up with Spliff Star for “Ante Up Remix”, “Scenario,” “Look At Me Now”, “I Know What You Want”, before a long list of A-listers jumped in: Scar Lip with “This Is New York”, Coi Leray with “Players,” BIA with “Beach Ball,” among them. Halfway through the performance, Rhymes shifted gears to celebrate dancehall alongside Dexta Daps “Shabba Madda Pot,” Spice, “So Mi Like It,” Skillibeng, “Whap Whap”, and CuttyRanks’ “A Who Seh Me Dun (Wait Deh Man).”

    Throughout the show, old school hip-hop heroes and modern stars mixed it up onstage, performing tracks celebrating rap’s most influential cities and innovation. For Miami, Trick Daddy and Trina rocked through “Nann” and Uncle Luke took on “I Wanna Rock (Doo Doo Brown).” For Atlanta, Jeezy ripped through “They Know”, T.I. hit “24’s,” and Master P did “No Limit Soldiers” into “Make ’Em Say Ugh.” And for hip-hop’s reggae influence, Jamaica’s Doug E. Fresh and Lil ’Vicious did an acapella version of “Freaks,” Mad Lion performed “Take It Easy,” and PATRA nailed “Romantic Call.”

    Capri spun some of Tupac’s “Hail Marry” to tease a crash course on West Coast rap: Warren G’s “Regulate,” Yo-Yo’s “You Can’t Play With My Yo-Yo,” Tyga’s “Rack City”, and E-40’s “Tell Me When To Go.”

    An ode to trap started with Capri spinning the late Pop Smoke’s “Dior”, before Chief Keef nailed “Faneto” and Ying Yang Twins did “Wait (The Whisper Song.”)

    Audience members, danced, sang along (and a few hopped up on stage) while Capri and MC Lyte keep the hostless show moving. It was a mostly hiccup-free show — save for a hitch during Patti LaBelle’s performance and the show running nearly four hours — particularly noteworthy for an event scheduled in the midst of the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike.

    LaBelle honored the Tina Turner with a performance of the late singer’s hit “The Best,” telling the audience at one point she couldn’t see the words. “I’m trying, y’all!” she said before powering into the chorus.

    A masked Lil Uzi Vert opened the show at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater before it jumped into a quick history lesson. Capri walked the audience through a medley of the earliest days of New York City ’80s rap culture featuring The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” MC LYTE’s “Cha Cha Cha”, D-NICE’s “Call ME D-Nice” and Big Daddy Kane’s “Raw,” into a partial cover of “Just A Friend,” an homage to the late great Biz Markie.

    “I would not be in this business on the stage tonight if it wasn’t for one person,” Big Daddy Kane said introducing the song. “Rest in peace.” He invited audience members to sing along to the song’s infectious chorus.

    ALSO READ | BET Awards: Stars use stage to strongly criticize Roe v. Wade ruling

    The coveted best new artist award went to Coco Jones, in a category that featured only female performers.

    “For all of my black girls, we do have to fight a little harder to get what we deserve,” she said in her acceptance speech. “But don’t stop fighting even when it doesn’t make sense. And you’re not sure how you’re going to get out of those circumstances. Keep pushing because we are deserving of great things.”

    It was followed by a supermarket-themed performance of AP’s pick for club song of the summer, Latto’s “Put It On Da Floor Again,” sans featured artist Cardi B but no less catchy. It ended with a text tribute: “RIP Shawty Lo,” a screen read.

    Teyana “Spike Tey” Taylor won video director of the year, which was accepted by her mom Nikki Taylor – like a true matriarch, she interrupted the show to videocall her daughter and let her have the moment.

    At the end of his acceptance speech, Rhymes urged the hip-hop community to “stop this narrative that we don’t love each other,” urging veteran musicians and newcomers alike to embrace one another.

    It was the perfect mirror for the night: New York rapper Ice Spice ran through abridged versions of “Munch (Feelin’ U),” “Princess Diana” and “In Ha Mood”; Glorilla brought “Lick Or Sum” to the BET stage, and Kali powered through her TikTok hit, “Area Codes.”

    In the audience, generations of hip-hop heavy-hitters cheered.

    LOS ANGELES: The 2023 BET Awards celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with tributes to the genre’s earliest voices, late legends, and new talent during a show packed with spectacular performances that consistently felt like a party.

    Sunday’s biggest surprise came when Quavo and Offset, the surviving members of Migos, performed “Bad and Boujee” in front of an image of Takeoff, who died in a shooting last December.

    “BET, do it for Take,” the duo shouted near the beginning of their set, as their backdrop switched from the image of a space shuttle to one of Takeoff pointing in the air.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Throughout the show, whether it was Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Biz Markie or Pop Smoke, performers and emcee Kid Capri paid homage to late hip-hop stars, often by quickly highlighting a taste of their best-known hits. In a show where few awards were given, Capri and BET kept the emphasis on the music.

    Busta Rhymes took home the night’s biggest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, handed to him by Swizz Beatz. The 12-time Grammy Award nominated rapper, producer, and pioneering hip-hop figure is widely regarded as one of the great MCs, with seven Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits to his name.

    Diddy, Janet Jackson, Chuck D, Missy Elliot, Pharrell Williams, and Mariah Carey recorded a video tribute to Rhymes.

    “Alright, Imma wear it on my sleeve. I do wanna cry,” Rhymes started his speech, as his eyes started to water. He talked about his six children, being kicked out from his hip-hop group Leaders of the New School, and learning how to rebuild by going into studios, sharing a cigar with whoever was in the studio, and “quickly whipping up a 16 bar verse. … By default, I pioneered the feature,” he said. “A lot of greatness from out people in our culture is by default. Because it’s just a magic we have.”

    An energetic tribute to Rhymes followed — the MC teamed up with Spliff Star for “Ante Up Remix”, “Scenario,” “Look At Me Now”, “I Know What You Want”, before a long list of A-listers jumped in: Scar Lip with “This Is New York”, Coi Leray with “Players,” BIA with “Beach Ball,” among them. Halfway through the performance, Rhymes shifted gears to celebrate dancehall alongside Dexta Daps “Shabba Madda Pot,” Spice, “So Mi Like It,” Skillibeng, “Whap Whap”, and CuttyRanks’ “A Who Seh Me Dun (Wait Deh Man).”

    Throughout the show, old school hip-hop heroes and modern stars mixed it up onstage, performing tracks celebrating rap’s most influential cities and innovation. For Miami, Trick Daddy and Trina rocked through “Nann” and Uncle Luke took on “I Wanna Rock (Doo Doo Brown).” For Atlanta, Jeezy ripped through “They Know”, T.I. hit “24’s,” and Master P did “No Limit Soldiers” into “Make ’Em Say Ugh.” And for hip-hop’s reggae influence, Jamaica’s Doug E. Fresh and Lil ’Vicious did an acapella version of “Freaks,” Mad Lion performed “Take It Easy,” and PATRA nailed “Romantic Call.”

    Capri spun some of Tupac’s “Hail Marry” to tease a crash course on West Coast rap: Warren G’s “Regulate,” Yo-Yo’s “You Can’t Play With My Yo-Yo,” Tyga’s “Rack City”, and E-40’s “Tell Me When To Go.”

    An ode to trap started with Capri spinning the late Pop Smoke’s “Dior”, before Chief Keef nailed “Faneto” and Ying Yang Twins did “Wait (The Whisper Song.”)

    Audience members, danced, sang along (and a few hopped up on stage) while Capri and MC Lyte keep the hostless show moving. It was a mostly hiccup-free show — save for a hitch during Patti LaBelle’s performance and the show running nearly four hours — particularly noteworthy for an event scheduled in the midst of the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike.

    LaBelle honored the Tina Turner with a performance of the late singer’s hit “The Best,” telling the audience at one point she couldn’t see the words. “I’m trying, y’all!” she said before powering into the chorus.

    A masked Lil Uzi Vert opened the show at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater before it jumped into a quick history lesson. Capri walked the audience through a medley of the earliest days of New York City ’80s rap culture featuring The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” MC LYTE’s “Cha Cha Cha”, D-NICE’s “Call ME D-Nice” and Big Daddy Kane’s “Raw,” into a partial cover of “Just A Friend,” an homage to the late great Biz Markie.

    “I would not be in this business on the stage tonight if it wasn’t for one person,” Big Daddy Kane said introducing the song. “Rest in peace.” He invited audience members to sing along to the song’s infectious chorus.

    ALSO READ | BET Awards: Stars use stage to strongly criticize Roe v. Wade ruling

    The coveted best new artist award went to Coco Jones, in a category that featured only female performers.

    “For all of my black girls, we do have to fight a little harder to get what we deserve,” she said in her acceptance speech. “But don’t stop fighting even when it doesn’t make sense. And you’re not sure how you’re going to get out of those circumstances. Keep pushing because we are deserving of great things.”

    It was followed by a supermarket-themed performance of AP’s pick for club song of the summer, Latto’s “Put It On Da Floor Again,” sans featured artist Cardi B but no less catchy. It ended with a text tribute: “RIP Shawty Lo,” a screen read.

    Teyana “Spike Tey” Taylor won video director of the year, which was accepted by her mom Nikki Taylor – like a true matriarch, she interrupted the show to videocall her daughter and let her have the moment.

    At the end of his acceptance speech, Rhymes urged the hip-hop community to “stop this narrative that we don’t love each other,” urging veteran musicians and newcomers alike to embrace one another.

    It was the perfect mirror for the night: New York rapper Ice Spice ran through abridged versions of “Munch (Feelin’ U),” “Princess Diana” and “In Ha Mood”; Glorilla brought “Lick Or Sum” to the BET stage, and Kali powered through her TikTok hit, “Area Codes.”

    In the audience, generations of hip-hop heavy-hitters cheered.

  • A public person in a private country: Tina Turner reveled in ‘normal’ life in her Swiss home

    By Associated Press

    KUESNACHT, Switzerland: In her adoptive country, Tina Turner was more than just a swivel-hipped rock, R&B and pop superstar. She unapologetically moved to Switzerland for its discretion and calm, carrying her very public persona into a very private country. She relished her life as a Swiss citizen — and the feeling was mutual.

    It seems love’s got to do with it, too: In her 2018 memoir, “My Love Story,” Turner shared her emotion for longtime boyfriend-turned-husband Erwin Bach — a German record producer who had set up in Switzerland. She moved to join him in the mid-1990s, nearly a decade after they first met.

    Mourners laid flowers and candles Thursday outside the gate of the couple’s lakeside villa rental, “Chateau Algonquin,” in the upscale town of Kuesnacht, southeast of Zurich, where they settled, got married in 2013, and lived for decades until her death on Wednesday at age 83.

    It was an understated tribute — reflective of the Swiss discretion that had drawn her to the rich Alpine country in the first place.

    Neighbors didn’t gawk, hound her for autographs or snap photos. Many Swiss felt a sense of pride that she could retreat here from the pressures of the media spotlight. It afforded her the semblance of a normal life after a turbulent one in her native United States, including at the hands of her late former husband Ike who discovered her, married her and — according to her memoirs — violently beat her.

    Celebrities of the past including Charlie Chaplin and Freddie Mercury, as well as living stars like Sophia Loren and Shania Twain, have been drawn to Switzerland — often for its reputed respect for private lives. Roman Polanski holed up in an Alpine chalet briefly to skirt U.S. justice, and some of the world’s financial magnates and business gurus have been attracted by the country’s relatively low taxes and secrecy about money matters.

    Turner, who moved in the mid-1990s and took Swiss citizenship in 2013 — dispensing with her U.S passport — was arguably the most famous resident in recent years.

    Swiss President Alain Berset tweeted a tribute to Turner, calling her an icon and saying his “thoughts are with the relatives of this impressive woman, who found a second homeland in Switzerland.”

    Markus Ernst, the mayor of Kuesnacht, a bucolic town on the shores of Lake Zurich, said Turner was engaged in the community — regularly lighting the annual Christmas tree and once inaugurating a municipal rescue boat that has been christened “Tina” — but locals went out of their way to help an overwhelmingly public figure enjoy a private life, too.

    “One of the reasons she came to Switzerland was to have a completely normal life,” he said by phone. “She could go to restaurants without being photographed all the time … in the street, people didn’t stare at her or ask for her autograph.”

    Dropping by to pay her respects, art dealer Renate Fetscherin, who has lived in the town for decades, said people in Switzerland “would never bother anybody, you know?” and the couple could rest easy: “They don’t worry about paparazzi because we don’t have them!”

    “Kuesnacht was very proud of having such a famous person here,” Fetscherin said. She recalled how Turner and Bach — clearly ensconced in Switzerland for good — had reportedly bought a villa last year just down the lake from the town.

    At his upscale eatery just a couple hundred meters from the villa, restaurateur Rico Zandonella recalled Turner as “very dear friend” and a frequent guest who once celebrated a birthday there with colleagues “who sang for her: It was a really great celebration.”

    “Tina Turner is a very big personality when she enters a room. She has a really great aura — a personality that explodes like a bomb, like she is on stage.”

    A statement from her longtime manager, Bernard Doherty, said a private funeral ceremony among close family and friends was planned, adding: “Please respect the privacy of her.”

    Years ago, Turner narrated milestones of her life and her affection and affinity for Switzerland in a glitzy TV ad for communications company Swisscom, featuring young actors who portrayed her in both early life and in highlight moments of her career.

    ALSO READ | Tina Turner created a career on her terms, not defined by her trauma

    It alluded to stereotypes about Switzerland such as the home of William Tell or a hub of ice-skating prowess; she sat in a rocking rowboat in a lake ringed by majestic mountains, mobile phone in hand. Turner recounted how her friends had to adapt to her Swiss tastes, as one actor portraying her carried out a pot of cheese fondue to quizzical looks from fictionalized guests.

    Another actor waved off fans as flash bulbs popped while she clambered into the backseat of a limousine next to the real Turner, and the superstar quipped: “As time went by, I learned more and more about Switzerland, like that security and discretion are people’s top priority — just like they are for me.”

    “And when I finally moved to Switzerland, it felt like home right away,” she mused. “People respect each other’s privacy here, take care of each other.”

    KUESNACHT, Switzerland: In her adoptive country, Tina Turner was more than just a swivel-hipped rock, R&B and pop superstar. She unapologetically moved to Switzerland for its discretion and calm, carrying her very public persona into a very private country. She relished her life as a Swiss citizen — and the feeling was mutual.

    It seems love’s got to do with it, too: In her 2018 memoir, “My Love Story,” Turner shared her emotion for longtime boyfriend-turned-husband Erwin Bach — a German record producer who had set up in Switzerland. She moved to join him in the mid-1990s, nearly a decade after they first met.

    Mourners laid flowers and candles Thursday outside the gate of the couple’s lakeside villa rental, “Chateau Algonquin,” in the upscale town of Kuesnacht, southeast of Zurich, where they settled, got married in 2013, and lived for decades until her death on Wednesday at age 83.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    It was an understated tribute — reflective of the Swiss discretion that had drawn her to the rich Alpine country in the first place.

    Neighbors didn’t gawk, hound her for autographs or snap photos. Many Swiss felt a sense of pride that she could retreat here from the pressures of the media spotlight. It afforded her the semblance of a normal life after a turbulent one in her native United States, including at the hands of her late former husband Ike who discovered her, married her and — according to her memoirs — violently beat her.

    Celebrities of the past including Charlie Chaplin and Freddie Mercury, as well as living stars like Sophia Loren and Shania Twain, have been drawn to Switzerland — often for its reputed respect for private lives. Roman Polanski holed up in an Alpine chalet briefly to skirt U.S. justice, and some of the world’s financial magnates and business gurus have been attracted by the country’s relatively low taxes and secrecy about money matters.

    Turner, who moved in the mid-1990s and took Swiss citizenship in 2013 — dispensing with her U.S passport — was arguably the most famous resident in recent years.

    Swiss President Alain Berset tweeted a tribute to Turner, calling her an icon and saying his “thoughts are with the relatives of this impressive woman, who found a second homeland in Switzerland.”

    Markus Ernst, the mayor of Kuesnacht, a bucolic town on the shores of Lake Zurich, said Turner was engaged in the community — regularly lighting the annual Christmas tree and once inaugurating a municipal rescue boat that has been christened “Tina” — but locals went out of their way to help an overwhelmingly public figure enjoy a private life, too.

    “One of the reasons she came to Switzerland was to have a completely normal life,” he said by phone. “She could go to restaurants without being photographed all the time … in the street, people didn’t stare at her or ask for her autograph.”

    Dropping by to pay her respects, art dealer Renate Fetscherin, who has lived in the town for decades, said people in Switzerland “would never bother anybody, you know?” and the couple could rest easy: “They don’t worry about paparazzi because we don’t have them!”

    “Kuesnacht was very proud of having such a famous person here,” Fetscherin said. She recalled how Turner and Bach — clearly ensconced in Switzerland for good — had reportedly bought a villa last year just down the lake from the town.

    At his upscale eatery just a couple hundred meters from the villa, restaurateur Rico Zandonella recalled Turner as “very dear friend” and a frequent guest who once celebrated a birthday there with colleagues “who sang for her: It was a really great celebration.”

    “Tina Turner is a very big personality when she enters a room. She has a really great aura — a personality that explodes like a bomb, like she is on stage.”

    A statement from her longtime manager, Bernard Doherty, said a private funeral ceremony among close family and friends was planned, adding: “Please respect the privacy of her.”

    Years ago, Turner narrated milestones of her life and her affection and affinity for Switzerland in a glitzy TV ad for communications company Swisscom, featuring young actors who portrayed her in both early life and in highlight moments of her career.

    ALSO READ | Tina Turner created a career on her terms, not defined by her trauma

    It alluded to stereotypes about Switzerland such as the home of William Tell or a hub of ice-skating prowess; she sat in a rocking rowboat in a lake ringed by majestic mountains, mobile phone in hand. Turner recounted how her friends had to adapt to her Swiss tastes, as one actor portraying her carried out a pot of cheese fondue to quizzical looks from fictionalized guests.

    Another actor waved off fans as flash bulbs popped while she clambered into the backseat of a limousine next to the real Turner, and the superstar quipped: “As time went by, I learned more and more about Switzerland, like that security and discretion are people’s top priority — just like they are for me.”

    “And when I finally moved to Switzerland, it felt like home right away,” she mused. “People respect each other’s privacy here, take care of each other.”

  • Tina Turner created a career on her terms, not defined by her trauma

    By Associated Press

    NASHVILLE, Tenn.: In 1976, a young Tina Turner, bloodied and beaten by her husband and musical partner Ike Turner, fled in the dark across a Dallas freeway dodging trucks and cars with only pennies in her pocket.

    That moment when she decided she’d had enough of the physical, sexual and emotional abuse was a turning point for the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” who would go on to have a musical renaissance in the 1980s. After the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and worldwide star died Wednesday at 83, tributes often remarked on her courage in the face of horrifying violence.

    But her story of surviving and thriving was so much more than a comeback, cultural and domestic abuse experts say. Turner’s reclaiming of her career and her humanity on her own terms made her a pioneering Black woman who refused to be defined by abuse.

    Turner detailed that night in her 2021 documentary, “Tina,” describing the euphoria she felt: “I was very proud. I felt strong. I had never done this.” She made the difficult decision to tell that part of her life in interviews and a biography, later adapted into the hit biopic “What’s Love Got To Do With It.”

    Raven Maragh-Lloyd, an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said the thread of the strong Black woman is limiting when applied to women like Turner, whose career blended multiple musical genres, acting and a distinct visual aesthetic.

    “So much of her story has been told through the lens of being a survivor or how much she has overcome to be the superstar, all of which is relevant and true,” Maragh-Lloyd said. “At the same time, we risk erasing her emotions, her feelings, what that must have been like to go through that abuse.

    “That’s a part of her story, not her full humanity,” Maragh-Lloyd said.

    The public image of Ike and Tina Turner, a name he gave her and then trademarked to try to keep her from using, was a brand she had to dismantle, even at personal cost.

    “I wanted to stop people from thinking that Ike and Tina was so positive,” she said in the documentary. “It was that we were such a love team or great team. And it wasn’t like that. So I thought, if nothing else, at least people would know.”

    Author Francesca Royster explored Turner’s country roots in her 2022 book, “Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions,” and noted that her decision to leave Ike stymied her career because of the financial impact and stigma of the divorce.

    “She experienced lack of interest by music companies who saw her as a kind of novelty act or as a nostalgia act or washed up,” said Royster, a professor of English at DePaul University. “She hadn’t been credited as having the kind of creative power.”

    Carolyn West, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Washington who focuses her research on marginalized women experiencing sexual and domestic violence, said Turner was facing down a long history and pattern of discrediting Black women who are abused.

    “It probably was very difficult for people to really believe Ike would have done these things or that she was in fact a survivor or wasn’t somehow responsible for the abuse,” West said.

    The threads of Turner’s experience in the 1970s stretch all the way to the present-day misogynoir faced by Black female artists like Meghan Thee Stallion and Rihanna, who have both experienced intimate partner violence, West said.

    “There’s really almost no space, particularly for Black women, to talk about these experiences,” West said. “In the way Meghan was attacked, the way Rihanna was attacked, it’s almost like you just become revictimized again.”

    Turner was undeterred. As she sang in “Proud Mary,” she wasn’t going to approach anything “nice and easy.”

    She had control of her career revolution in the 1980s with the album “Private Dancer” and its hit “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” She was a triple threat — singer, actor and author — and became a worldwide touring phenomenon. She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 12 Grammys, was voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame both as a duo and as a solo artist, and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005.

    Her visual representation on screen and stage as strong, sexual and feminine with her big, bold hair and toned legs projected her own identity, Royster said.

    “She really invented her own unique look with her lion’s mane and her combination of leather and denim and her ability also to really move on those high heels,” Royster said. “Those became trademarks.”

    In her later years after her musical retirement in the 2000s, Turner lived a long private life with longtime partner Erwin Bach in Switzerland, no longer beholden to anybody. Maragh-Lloyd said Turner’s acumen served her well till the end.

    “She wanted not to be gazed upon by anybody, not to perform for anybody,” Maragh-Lloyd said. “That’s also a lesson: You’re not going to use me up.”

    NASHVILLE, Tenn.: In 1976, a young Tina Turner, bloodied and beaten by her husband and musical partner Ike Turner, fled in the dark across a Dallas freeway dodging trucks and cars with only pennies in her pocket.

    That moment when she decided she’d had enough of the physical, sexual and emotional abuse was a turning point for the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” who would go on to have a musical renaissance in the 1980s. After the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and worldwide star died Wednesday at 83, tributes often remarked on her courage in the face of horrifying violence.

    But her story of surviving and thriving was so much more than a comeback, cultural and domestic abuse experts say. Turner’s reclaiming of her career and her humanity on her own terms made her a pioneering Black woman who refused to be defined by abuse.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Turner detailed that night in her 2021 documentary, “Tina,” describing the euphoria she felt: “I was very proud. I felt strong. I had never done this.” She made the difficult decision to tell that part of her life in interviews and a biography, later adapted into the hit biopic “What’s Love Got To Do With It.”

    Raven Maragh-Lloyd, an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said the thread of the strong Black woman is limiting when applied to women like Turner, whose career blended multiple musical genres, acting and a distinct visual aesthetic.

    “So much of her story has been told through the lens of being a survivor or how much she has overcome to be the superstar, all of which is relevant and true,” Maragh-Lloyd said. “At the same time, we risk erasing her emotions, her feelings, what that must have been like to go through that abuse.

    “That’s a part of her story, not her full humanity,” Maragh-Lloyd said.

    The public image of Ike and Tina Turner, a name he gave her and then trademarked to try to keep her from using, was a brand she had to dismantle, even at personal cost.

    “I wanted to stop people from thinking that Ike and Tina was so positive,” she said in the documentary. “It was that we were such a love team or great team. And it wasn’t like that. So I thought, if nothing else, at least people would know.”

    Author Francesca Royster explored Turner’s country roots in her 2022 book, “Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions,” and noted that her decision to leave Ike stymied her career because of the financial impact and stigma of the divorce.

    “She experienced lack of interest by music companies who saw her as a kind of novelty act or as a nostalgia act or washed up,” said Royster, a professor of English at DePaul University. “She hadn’t been credited as having the kind of creative power.”

    Carolyn West, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Washington who focuses her research on marginalized women experiencing sexual and domestic violence, said Turner was facing down a long history and pattern of discrediting Black women who are abused.

    “It probably was very difficult for people to really believe Ike would have done these things or that she was in fact a survivor or wasn’t somehow responsible for the abuse,” West said.

    The threads of Turner’s experience in the 1970s stretch all the way to the present-day misogynoir faced by Black female artists like Meghan Thee Stallion and Rihanna, who have both experienced intimate partner violence, West said.

    “There’s really almost no space, particularly for Black women, to talk about these experiences,” West said. “In the way Meghan was attacked, the way Rihanna was attacked, it’s almost like you just become revictimized again.”

    Turner was undeterred. As she sang in “Proud Mary,” she wasn’t going to approach anything “nice and easy.”

    She had control of her career revolution in the 1980s with the album “Private Dancer” and its hit “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” She was a triple threat — singer, actor and author — and became a worldwide touring phenomenon. She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 12 Grammys, was voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame both as a duo and as a solo artist, and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005.

    Her visual representation on screen and stage as strong, sexual and feminine with her big, bold hair and toned legs projected her own identity, Royster said.

    “She really invented her own unique look with her lion’s mane and her combination of leather and denim and her ability also to really move on those high heels,” Royster said. “Those became trademarks.”

    In her later years after her musical retirement in the 2000s, Turner lived a long private life with longtime partner Erwin Bach in Switzerland, no longer beholden to anybody. Maragh-Lloyd said Turner’s acumen served her well till the end.

    “She wanted not to be gazed upon by anybody, not to perform for anybody,” Maragh-Lloyd said. “That’s also a lesson: You’re not going to use me up.”

  • Rock ‘N’ Roll Legend, ‘Private Dancer’ hitmaker Tina Turner dies at 83

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: Soulful diva Tina Turner, who had a lengthy run of ’60s and ’70s R&B hits and struck major pop stardom in the ’80s, died on Wednesday in Switzerland, reports ‘Variety’. She was 83.

    “Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ has died peacefully today at the age of 83 after a long illness in her home in Kusnacht near Zurich, Switzerland. With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” her representative said in a statement to ‘Variety’.

    Tina Turner performs in a concert in Cologne, Germany on Jan. 14, 2009. (File Photo | AP)

    More than a decade after her crossover hit ‘Proud Mary’ with husband Ike, Tina Turner ascended to the pinnacle of pop fame with the 1984 Capitol Records album ‘Private Dancer’. The collection, which spawned a trio of top-10 pop hits, sold five million copies and garnered four Grammy Awards, adds ‘Variety’. Though she never matched that breakthrough solo success, she recorded and toured profitably until her retirement in 2000.

    Raw-voiced, leggy, peripatetic and provocative onstage, writes ‘Variety’, the magnetic Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock in the farming community Nutbush, Tennessee, segued effortlessly into big screen roles.

    She appeared as the Acid Queen in Ken Russell’s 1975 adaptation of the Who’s rock opera ‘Tommy’ and as villainess Aunty Entity in George Miller’s action sequel ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome’. She sang the title song, penned by Bono and the Edge of U2, for the 1995 James Bond pic ‘GoldenEye’.

    The winner of eight Grammys, Turner was a 1991 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and was recognised at the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors for her career achievements, adds Variety.

    President Bush, right, and first lady Laura Bush, center, stand with singer Tina Turner at the Kennedy Center Honors Gala on Dec. 4, 2005 in Washington. (File Photo | AP)

    Turner was still in her teens when she began recording with future husband Ike Turner; their tumultuous partnership produced 15 years of popular singles, culminating in the 1971 crossover smash ‘Proud Mary’.

    In 1976, the vocalist fled her abusive marriage and she detailed her violence-scarred relationship in the 1986 bestseller ‘I, Tina’, which served as the basis for the 1993 biopic ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’, notes ‘Variety’.

    In 1993, according to ‘Variety’, Turner scored her final U.S. top 10 hits with ‘I Don’t Wanna Fight’, a song recorded for the top-20 soundtrack of the biopic ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’. Director Brian Gibson’s feature starred Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett, who both received Oscar nods for their work as Ike and Tina.

    Even more than Turner’s autobiography, upon which it was loosely based, the film focused further attention on the issues of spousal abuse and domestic violence. Ike Turner, who maintained in interviews as well as in his autobiography that the charges of abuse were exaggerated, died from an apparent cocaine overdose in December 2007.

    Beyonce, left, and Tina Turner perform at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, in Los Angeles. (File Photo | AP)

    A devotee of Buddhist chanting since the early 1970s who never abandoned the Baptist faith of her youth, Turner released ‘Beyond’, a collaborative album of Buddhist and Christian music and chanting, in 2012.

    In 2013 — the same year she relinquished her American citizenship and took up residency in Switzerland — Turner married German music exec Irwin Bach, her companion of 27 years, according to ‘Variety’.

    She suffered a number of ailments in her later years, but the most severe of these seems to have been kidney disease.

    On World Kidney Day this past March, notes ‘Variety’, Turner posted on Instagram: “My kidneys are victims of my not realising that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine. I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication. For far too long I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion.”

    LOS ANGELES: Soulful diva Tina Turner, who had a lengthy run of ’60s and ’70s R&B hits and struck major pop stardom in the ’80s, died on Wednesday in Switzerland, reports ‘Variety’. She was 83.

    “Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ has died peacefully today at the age of 83 after a long illness in her home in Kusnacht near Zurich, Switzerland. With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” her representative said in a statement to ‘Variety’.

    Tina Turner performs in a concert in Cologne, Germany on Jan. 14, 2009. (File Photo | AP)

    More than a decade after her crossover hit ‘Proud Mary’ with husband Ike, Tina Turner ascended to the pinnacle of pop fame with the 1984 Capitol Records album ‘Private Dancer’. The collection, which spawned a trio of top-10 pop hits, sold five million copies and garnered four Grammy Awards, adds ‘Variety’. Though she never matched that breakthrough solo success, she recorded and toured profitably until her retirement in 2000.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Raw-voiced, leggy, peripatetic and provocative onstage, writes ‘Variety’, the magnetic Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock in the farming community Nutbush, Tennessee, segued effortlessly into big screen roles.

    She appeared as the Acid Queen in Ken Russell’s 1975 adaptation of the Who’s rock opera ‘Tommy’ and as villainess Aunty Entity in George Miller’s action sequel ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome’. She sang the title song, penned by Bono and the Edge of U2, for the 1995 James Bond pic ‘GoldenEye’.

    The winner of eight Grammys, Turner was a 1991 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and was recognised at the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors for her career achievements, adds Variety.

    President Bush, right, and first lady Laura Bush, center, stand with singer Tina Turner at the Kennedy Center Honors Gala on Dec. 4, 2005 in Washington. (File Photo | AP)

    Turner was still in her teens when she began recording with future husband Ike Turner; their tumultuous partnership produced 15 years of popular singles, culminating in the 1971 crossover smash ‘Proud Mary’.

    In 1976, the vocalist fled her abusive marriage and she detailed her violence-scarred relationship in the 1986 bestseller ‘I, Tina’, which served as the basis for the 1993 biopic ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’, notes ‘Variety’.

    In 1993, according to ‘Variety’, Turner scored her final U.S. top 10 hits with ‘I Don’t Wanna Fight’, a song recorded for the top-20 soundtrack of the biopic ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’. Director Brian Gibson’s feature starred Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett, who both received Oscar nods for their work as Ike and Tina.

    Even more than Turner’s autobiography, upon which it was loosely based, the film focused further attention on the issues of spousal abuse and domestic violence. Ike Turner, who maintained in interviews as well as in his autobiography that the charges of abuse were exaggerated, died from an apparent cocaine overdose in December 2007.

    Beyonce, left, and Tina Turner perform at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008, in Los Angeles. (File Photo | AP)

    A devotee of Buddhist chanting since the early 1970s who never abandoned the Baptist faith of her youth, Turner released ‘Beyond’, a collaborative album of Buddhist and Christian music and chanting, in 2012.

    In 2013 — the same year she relinquished her American citizenship and took up residency in Switzerland — Turner married German music exec Irwin Bach, her companion of 27 years, according to ‘Variety’.

    She suffered a number of ailments in her later years, but the most severe of these seems to have been kidney disease.

    On World Kidney Day this past March, notes ‘Variety’, Turner posted on Instagram: “My kidneys are victims of my not realising that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine. I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication. For far too long I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion.”

  • Tina Turner, unstoppable superstar whose hits included ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It,’ dead at 83

    By Associated Press

    NEW YORK: Tina Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ’70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” has died at 83.

    Turner died Tuesday, after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, according to her manager. She became a Swiss citizen a decade ago.

    Few stars traveled so far — she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a segregated Tennessee hospital and spent her latter years on a 260,000 square foot estate on Lake Zurich — and overcame so much. Physically battered, emotionally devastated and financially ruined by her 20-year relationship with Ike Turner, she became a superstar on her own in her 40s, at a time when most of her peers were on their way down, and remained a top concert draw for years after.

    With admirers ranging from Beyoncé to Mick Jagger, Turner was one of the world’s most successful entertainers, known for a core of pop, rock and rhythm and blues favorites: “Proud Mary,” “Nutbush City Limits,” “River Deep, Mountain High,” and the hits she had in the ’80s, among them “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero” and a cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.”

    Her trademarks were her growling contralto, her bold smile and strong cheekbones, her palette of wigs and the muscular, quick-stepping legs she did not shy from showing off. She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 11 Grammys, was voted along with Ike into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 (and on her own in 2021) and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005, with Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey among those praising her. Her life became the basis for a film, a Broadway musical and an HBO documentary in 2021 that she called her public farewell.

    NEW YORK: Tina Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ’70s and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” has died at 83.

    Turner died Tuesday, after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, according to her manager. She became a Swiss citizen a decade ago.

    Few stars traveled so far — she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a segregated Tennessee hospital and spent her latter years on a 260,000 square foot estate on Lake Zurich — and overcame so much. Physically battered, emotionally devastated and financially ruined by her 20-year relationship with Ike Turner, she became a superstar on her own in her 40s, at a time when most of her peers were on their way down, and remained a top concert draw for years after.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    With admirers ranging from Beyoncé to Mick Jagger, Turner was one of the world’s most successful entertainers, known for a core of pop, rock and rhythm and blues favorites: “Proud Mary,” “Nutbush City Limits,” “River Deep, Mountain High,” and the hits she had in the ’80s, among them “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero” and a cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.”

    Her trademarks were her growling contralto, her bold smile and strong cheekbones, her palette of wigs and the muscular, quick-stepping legs she did not shy from showing off. She sold more than 150 million records worldwide, won 11 Grammys, was voted along with Ike into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 (and on her own in 2021) and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005, with Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey among those praising her. Her life became the basis for a film, a Broadway musical and an HBO documentary in 2021 that she called her public farewell.

  • Jay-Z, Foo Fighters welcomed into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

    The self-proclaimed “greatest rapper alive” was inducted Saturday night as part of an eclectic 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class that included Foo Fighters, Carole King, Tina Turner, The Go-Gos and Todd Rundgren.

    Once a drug dealer on the tough streets of Brooklyn, New York, Jay-Z rose through the rap world with hard, straight-forward songs that often portrayed the struggles of Black people in America.

    His catalogue includes songs like “Hard Knock Life,” “99 Problems” and “Empire State of Mind” as well as 14 No. 1 albums.

    Following a video introduction that included President Barack Obama, LeBron James and David Letterman, Jay-Z was inducted by comedian Dave Chappelle, who praised him for being an inspiration.

    “He rhymed a recipe for survival,” Chappelle said. “He embodies what the potential of our lives can be and what success can be.”

    Paul McCartney welcomed Foo Fighters, who have carried the mantle as one of rock’s top arena acts. Initially, the band was little more than a side project for front man Dave Grohl, who was previously inducted as Nirvana’s drummer.

    McCartney described the parallels between he and Grohl as both were part of massively popular bands who broke up.

    “Do you think this guy is stalking me?” McCartney joked.

    Foo Fighters and McCartney closed the show with the Beatles’ “Get Back.”

    Rapper LL Cool J was enshrined for musical excellence along with keyboardist Billy Preston and guitarist Randy Rhoads.

    Electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, singer-poet Gil Scott-Heron and Delta blues legend Charley Patton were inducted as early influencers and Sussex Records founder Clarence Avant received the Ahmet Ertegun Award.

    Cool J recruited some of his heavyweight musical friends to usher him into rock immortality. One of rap’s hip-hops first superstars was joined on stage by Eminem and Jennifer Lopez for a powerful career-spanning performance.

    With New York street style and swagger, Cool J remains a relevant artist more than 40 years after he first spit lyrics.

    “What does LL really stand for?” asked rapper/producer Dr. Dre in his induction speech. “Ladies love? Living large? Licking lips? I’m here because I think it stands for living legend.”

    Cool J then did a medley of his hits, including “Rock The Bells” accompanied by a bearded Eminem before he was joined by J-Lo for “All I Have.” Cool J wrapped up his blistering set with with one of his biggest hits, “Mama Said Knock You Out.”

    Superstar Taylor Swift opened the show with one of King’s best-known songs, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” which appeared on “Tapestry” her seminal 1971 album — a soundtrack for a generation.

    Swift gave a moving, heartfelt induction speech for one of her musical idols.

    “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know Carole King’s music,” Swift said, saying her parents taught her several important lessons as a child with one of the most important being “that Carole King is the greatest songwriter of all time.”

    King thanked Swift “for carrying the torch forward.” She noted other female singers and songwriters have said they stand on her shoulders.

    “Let it not be forgotten,” King said. “They also stand on the shoulders of the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. May she rest in power, Miss Aretha Franklin.”

    King then introduced Jennifer Hudson, who performed a stunning, rafter-shaking performance of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” before King sang “You Got A Friend.”

    The 81-year-old Turner, who found her greatest success when she left abusive husband Ike Turner, lives in Switzerland and did not attend the ceremony.

    “If they’re still giving me awards at 81,” Turner said in a video message. “I must have done something right.”

    Keith Urban and H.E.R. performed “It’s Only Love” a duet Turner did with Bryan Adams before Mickey Guyton took on her most iconic song, “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” Then Christina Aguilera belted out “River Deep, Mountain High.”

    Considered the greatest female group in rock history, The Go-Go’s emerged from Los Angeles’ punk scene in the 1980s. The quintet broke rules and smashed gender ceilings in a male-dominated industry with hits like “We Got The Beat,” “My Lips Are Sealed” and “Head Over Heels.”

    “They’ve been in my personal Hall of Fame since I was 6 years old,” said actress Drew Barrymore, who mimicked the cover of the band’s debut album, “Beauty and the Beat,” during her induction speech by wrapping her body and hair in bath towels and applying face cream.

    “Now,” she said. “My childhood fantasy is fulfilled.”

    Best known for soft ballads like “Hello It’s Me” and “Love Is The Answer,” Rundgren also had a long path to induction. He’s been outspoken about the hall’s selection process and skipped the ceremony in protest.

    “Ever defiant,” Patti Smith said in a video presenting Rundgren.

    This year’s ceremony was held for the first time at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, the 20,000-seat home of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and a venue familiar to Jay-Z and Foo Fighters, who have played shows in the arena before.

    It was a return to normalcy for the event, which was forced to go virtual in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Artists are not eligible for induction until 25 years after release of their first recording. There are lively debates every year over omissions, and as Public Enemy’s Chuck D noted during a plaque induction ceremony on Friday at the hall, patience is sometimes another requirement for entrance.

    “It ain’t no overnight thing,” he said. “You can’t stumble into this place.”

    That was certainly the case for King, who had been eligible for enshrinement as a solo artist since 1986. She went in previously as a songwriter with Gerry Goffin, her late husband, in 1990.

    The ceremony will be shown on HBO on Nov. 20.