Tina Turner was an enduring symbol of resilience

R&B. Funk. Blues. Country. Rock. TV. Movies. Tina Turner did it all–refusing to settle, refusing to be forgotten. She was a survivor, an innovator, and one of the most influential forces in music

**Trigger warning**: mention of domestic violence

When it came right down to it, in the divorce court, Ike Turner didn’t even want Tina Turner to keep her name. Born as Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, in the United States, the musician was given her stage name by Ike early on in their relationship. Ultimately, she was so eager to get away from him that she surrendered any claim to record royalties, publishing rights, and anything else, except “Tina Turner,” which she told the judge she had worked very hard for. “That name’s got my daddy’s blood written all over it,” Ike protested. But it would be more accurate to say it was written in Tina’s own blood.

The late Tina Turner, who passed away yesterday at the age of 83, used that name to captivate millions of listeners and inspire countless musicians, including Beyoncé, who collaborated with the singer at the 50th annual Grammy Awards in 2008. The pair teamed up for a high-energy, strutting version of “Proud Mary,” Ike & Tina Turner’s 1971 cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic. Watching Tina perform is simply enthralling. Each electrifying swing of her miniskirt, every slide of her three-inch-high Manolos across the stage, sends a message: I am here. I have triumphed. I will not be broken. 

The making of a star

Born to sharecropping parents in 1939, Tina’s mother and father, who were part Native American, left her during World War II to be raised by her grandmother in Tennessee, while they worked in Knoxville. In Nutbush, Tina fantasised about stardom while singing in talent shows and at church. After moving to St. Louis at age 16, she was discovered by Ike, the leader of R&B band Kings of Rhythm. Within a few years, her stirring vocals and energetic dance moves catapulted her from a backup singer to the act’s dominating force, renamed the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.

In 1960, the couple had a son, Ronnie. (Ike already had two sons, and Tina had one.) The same year, they landed their first hit, “A Fool in Love,” and in 1962, they were married in Tijuana. The band’s crossover to pop came with “River Deep, Mountain High” (1966)—a song that, while not a chart-topper in the United States, propelled them to acclaim across Europe. Ike and Tina were a hit pair on stage, but she suffered through his violent attacks offstage. 

The aftermath

After their split in 1976, Tina paid her rent by cleaning houses. She eventually broke into cabaret, performing old hits, and later played in Las Vegas. Finally, in 1984, with her own manager and a new record label, Tina released her breakout solo album, Private Dancer. It sold more than ten million copies; she won three Grammys and scored her first number-one hit: “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” 

In 1986, her autobiography, I, Tina, was published, exposing the shocking abuse she’d endured at Ike’s hands. (The book was made into the 1993 movie What’s Love Got to Do with It.) “Yeah, I was afraid of life without Ike but I was more afraid of what life with him would be like. But sometimes you’ve got to let everything go: purge yourself. My message here is if you are unhappy with anything: your mother, father, husband,wife, your job, boss, whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it! You’ll find that your peace comes just on the other side of letting go. When you’re free, your true self comes out,” she writes in the autobiography. 

The larger picture

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, more than 40 per cent of Black women have been at the receiving end of intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes. And more than half of Black adult female homicides are related to intimate partner violence.

Most Black women are often treated differently than white survivors when they reach out for support. Survivors think they won’t be believed; they are scared they will be attacked. Also, most Black women don’t necessarily want to turn to an abusive partner in law enforcement. Most survivors say they can’t get help because they don’t want their partner to become a statistic. There’s a genuine and legitimate fear that if they call the police, their partner could be killed, or they, as the survivor, could be killed.

Building a survivor

In the movie What’s Love Got to Do with It, as Tina and Ike reach the heights of show business, with platinum records, big Vegas bookings, and lots of money, their personal lives becomes a nightmare. The movie shows Ike strung out on cocaine, flaunting his endless string of girlfriends, and subjecting Tina to verbal and physical abuse. A few friends advise her to walk away. Most people around them, intimidated by Ike or grateful for a generous drug supply, are enablers.

The most harrowing scene in the movie comes one night as Ike beats Tina yet once again, and bleeding and battered, she walks out of their hotel and down a highway and into a Ramada Inn, where she says, “My name is Tina Turner, and my husband and I have had an argument. I have 32 cents in my pocket. If you give me a room I promise you I will pay you back as soon as I can.” The manager gives her a room.

But what is amazing is that the scene isn’t the end of Tina and Ike’s relationship. The movie is unflinching in its willingness to show that Tina, like many battered wives, made excuses for her violent husband, believed his apologies, and gave him more chances long after she should have walked away.

But unlike many women who choose to stay in abusive relationships for reasons beyond their control, Tina found the strength to fight back. There is an unforgettable scene late in the film where she is about to open a big engagement, and Ike slips past security and into her dressing room with a gun. She  finds the inner strength to face him down and not cave in, and go onstage like a professional.

Tina confesses that in Buddhism, she found inner peace. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, she shares how once someone told her, “Buddhism will save your life.” She was willing to give it a shot. “I still believe in the Lord’s Prayer. I find a form of the Lord’s Prayer in Buddhism. Every religion has rules for living a good life. If you practice any kind of spirituality, it moves you to stages where you gather other ways of communicating,”

The final years

Even though Tina declared her retirement in 2001 with an international run of 121 concerts, she returned to the stage in 2008 for one last tour celebrating her mercurial 50-year-long career. She rewarded the faithful with a tireless two-and-a-half-hour spectacle that saw her moving at full force through several costume changes and songs that stretched back five decades. Even “Goldeneye,” possibly the worst James Bond theme song ever, inspired wild shrieks from the largely older audience.

Unlike other artists, Tina’s talent remained intact. 

One would think Tina would miss the stage, given how it became her second home of sorts, but you would be mistaken. In what was possibly her last full-fledged interview with Winfrey in 2013, Tina confesses it’s been easy to walk away from the spotlight. “I’ve been working towards that for so long over. I worked hard all my life. They never gave me a thing, and when I started to take care of my family, I would say ‘Oh, I wish someone would do that for me’. And I knew that it wouldn’t happen. So I worked. And when that happened, that means I balanced my money and I had to make sure that financially it was that I could do it. And when I left there, I put it to rest. I tried to forget all of those stressful moments...I wanted to leave that stage knowing that everybody had a wonderful time,” she says. 

And in the last segment of the interview, she succinctly sums up her legacy: “Endurance. You know, I endured hardship all the way. I stayed on course; I stayed focused, never smoking, never drinking, never doing drugs. My legacy is that I stayed on course from the beginning to the end, because I believed in something inside of me that told me that it can get better or you can make something better and that I want it better. So my legacy is a person that strived to want it better and got it,” she signed off. 

Also Read: Indian cinema’s attempts at capturing the reality of domestic violence

Also Read: Why the world won’t stop reading Salman Rushdie

Also Read: Why do fewer female acts headline music festivals in India?