Tina Turner is dead. A musical legend and for me also a great role model when it comes to overcoming difficult phases in life. She never gave up, she fought and leaves us songs that give us strength.
On the way to the office, I’m standing in the car at the traffic light and happen to look into the vehicle next to me because the same radio station is playing with the windows open. A woman, my mother’s age in her 70s, sings loudly “You’re simply the best. Better than all the rest. Better than anyone…” and I do the same. Together we give a traffic light concert in our cars until the light turns green and we part ways again. I drive on with a smile. My musical idol died last night. But their songs trigger a feeling of happiness in me. Tina Turner understood women, was a role model for them and united generations.
At 36, I may not be of the same generation as my mother who rocked at Tina Turner’s concerts, but I grew up with her. When I was a toddler, her songs played on my parents’ stereos. In my father’s car, their songs stuck in my head from a young age. I remember sitting on my mother’s floor holding a CD cover of The Queen of Rock and looking at photos of my mother attempting the well-known Turner hairstyle. However, Tina Turner became more important to me as I got older.
Tina Turner understood what I was feeling
Her songs have been in my playlists since there were streaming services like Spotify and Co. I added them from childhood familiarity. I just never really listened until one day the line “Give me a lifetime of promises and a world of dreams” caught my eye. I was just hanging out on the sofa, heartbroken. Half couch, half floor I couldn’t get up. “Give me a life with promises and a world full of dreams” – I could feel that in that moment. I had broken out of a toxic relationship and knew what it meant to live on hope alone. Suddenly I listened more closely to the songs that had accompanied me for almost three decades and dealt more with the artist Tina Turner.
Queen of Rock’n’Roll
She met the Queen and sang with Sir Elton John: The Multifaceted Life of Tina Turner
A global star who went through a horrible, toxic relationship with Ike Turner. He hit her, manipulated her, cheated on her, was a narcissist, took advantage of her and treated her like dirt. She loved him, stayed with him way too long. She suffered mental anguish behind closed doors. Tina Turner understood me better than my friends, and yet this woman sang so easily out of my speakers: “Will our story shine like a light or end in the dark? Give it all or nothing” in her song “We don’t need another hero”.
Getting out of a toxic relationship looks easy on the outside because others only see the negative side. However, this step – which has now been psychologically proven – requires far more strength than escaping from a “normal” relationship. And this woman fled! She secretly ran away from Ike Turner and her whole band existence, and with it her livelihood, one night. She started downstairs at 37 to build a solo career. What was anything but easy: they were only known as Ike & Tina Turner. The record companies rejected the late 30s, not least because of her age, the color of her skin and her origins. But she persevered and made her musical breakthrough with her fourth solo album at the age of 44.
Tina Turner is part of the soundtrack of my life
And me, I was laying there crying because of a toxic relationship too, feeling sorry for myself – until I understood: This woman, who was yelling at me in her strong voice over the loudspeaker, had been through a lot more than me. And she got up again. I struggled to get off the sofa and forced myself to eat and shower again. During all those hours, Tina Turner sang “You’re simply the best. Better than all the rest. Better than anyone” until my neighbors emphatically understood: Fuck that guy. We don’t need toxic men, we don’t need sick relationships and we can all still change the world even after such an experience. Become a megastar. Start over at forty, fifty, sixty. We can all find love later in life, just like Tina found in the second half of her life with Erwin Bach.
Tina Turner died at the age of 83 in Switzerland, her dream home. She is leaving us as a legend, musically and personally she has inspired people, made them strong and will continue to do so with her songs for a long time to come. And so I say goodbye to one of my greatest idols: “I’m stuck on your heart, baby. I hang on every word you say” from the song “The Best” and I’ll probably do that for the rest of my life, even though it is Tina hasn’t existed for a long time.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
