Tributes to Tina Turner’s life, energy and performing career are pouring in, as the news broke last night that the Queen of Rock and Roll had passed away at the age of 83.
As a singer, she is known and loved for her raspy voice, her larger-than-life hairdos and a broad catalogue of hits, including Better Be Good To Me, The Best and River Deep Mountain High.
But a huge and important part of Tina’s legacy is also her tenacity and rise to legendary levels of solo success as a female artist in her 40s.
After fleeing an abusive personal and professional relationship with Ike Turner in 1976, she was left in debt and frequently shut out of an industry that she had been part of for 20 years.
Regardless, in the ‘80s, Turner launched what is now known as one of the greatest comebacks in music history. After years of working in cabaret, and one record company using racial abuse to reject her, she put out Private Dancer in 1984 – an album that would go on to win four Grammys, and introduced What’s Love Got To Do With It to the world.
The album, and its subsequent success, particularly in an industry as ageist and sexist as the entertainment industry, has been described as a ‘symbol of survival and renewal’ – it’s also a reminder that success is not defined by how old you are. It also tells us not to downplay the inevitability of adversity in our professional and personal lives, but to keep fighting and not assume our best days and achievements are behind us after we hit 30, or 40 or 50 and older.
Tina’s first solo album made her the oldest female solo artist to top Billboard’s Hot 100, with her success enduring throughout her 50s and 60s. In 1985, at the age of 46, Tina starred alongside Mel Gibson in sci-fi thriller Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome – most notably as a villain, Auntie Entity, not a small part as someone’s mum – and won a Grammy for the song she contributed to the film, One of the Living.
She also performed alongside Mick Jagger as part of Live Aid and penned her bestselling memoir I, Tina, which shone a light on a conversation around domestic violence.
These amazing accolades would be impressive enough in and of themselves, but the fact that Tina won awards for her performances in a male-dominated Hollywood industry in the ‘80s, collaborated with her fellow rock stars and pushed for activism and conversation around issues like domestic abuse shows her incredible talent and heart, continuing to fight against societal and personal barriers throughout the later decades of her life.
As well as inspiring a generation of Black female artists – including Janet Jackson, Beyoncé and Mary J Blige, all of whose current ages span from the age Tina found her highest solo successes – she inspired so many women to speak out about their experiences of domestic abuse, being one of the first female superstars to discuss her own experiences.
Her final performance was in the UK, at 69 years old to a sold-out audience in Sheffield, as part of her final world tour in 2009. By then, she was one of the best-selling female artists in music history, had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist and given stars on the Hollywood and St Louis Walks of Fame.
All of this happened after she turned 40. So alongside her activism and unforgettable music, Tina Turner’s life should be a reminder to us all to reject the patriarchal perspective on success and fight for our dreams at all ages.