By Chauncey K. Robinson 

 

TINA Turner, a trailblazer of rock and roll, has died at the age of 83. Throughout her decades-long career in the public eye, Turner showcased a raw and unfiltered musical energy whenever she took the stage. As a Black woman in the music industry, she often broke out of the boxes society intended for her to fit neatly into. Not only that, she pushed back on the notion of how “women of a certain age” were supposed to act and behave when her career had a second surge in the 1980s. The self-made rocker pushed through adversity both within the industry and in her personal life to solidify herself forever in music history.

Turner’s early life was very different from the large stages and glitzy shows she would eventually perform on. Born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tenn., Turner was the daughter of sharecropper overseer Floyd Richard Bullock and his wife, Zelma Priscilla. The singer once recalled early memories of picking cotton with her family in the unincorporated community of Nutbush, Tenn., where they initially lived. Due to her parents’ turbulent relationship, Turner moved often during her adolescent years, eventually ending up in St. Louis by the late 1950s. She graduated from Sumner High School in 1958 and began work as a nurse’s aide at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. This choice of work could have ended up being the steady course for Turner’s life, but the singer had a knack for the stage and music. Thus began her journey of finding a place to use her voice. This would result in her fateful meeting with musician and band leader Ike Turner. She would eventually convince Ike to allow her to sing in his band. On her first record, Boxtop, she sang under the name Little Ann. After the success of a second track called “Fool in Love,” Ike came up with the name Tina Turner for the singer. According to his 1999 book Taking Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner, the musician had trademarked the name Tina Turner so that if the singer ever left his band, he could simply replace her with another “Tina.”

Yet, as history would have it, although Ike had coined the name Tina Turner, there was no replacing the woman who would bring the moniker to life. From 1960 through 1976, Ike and Tina, along with their band, would tour the world as the “Ike and Tina Turner Revue,” becoming some of the most talked-about live performers of their time. This collaboration would culminate in the group’s biggest hit, their cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.” While Turner’s star was rising, she was dealing with domestic abuse in her marriage to Ike Turner. This would lead to the singer making one of the biggest decisions of her life when she mustered the courage to escape the relationship, reportedly with only $0.36 on her person.

Only in 1981 did Turner would break her silence regarding the domestic abuse she survived in her 16-year marriage. In an exclusive interview with People magazine, she described her ordeal—from her suicide attempt to the repeated brutality she endured while climbing the charts in the 1960s. For years following her escape, Turner made a number of appearances and released a few solo albums from 1976 to 1983. Unfortunately, none of those endeavours would make the kind of splash in the mainstream seen during her earlier musical days with her former husband. Turner, now in her forties, was beginning to be seen as a nostalgia act, relegated to a woman of yesteryear seemingly past her prime. Fortunately, the woman with humble beginnings in Nutbush had other plans for her life and career. Turner’s fifth solo album, Private Dancer, which her label only gave her two weeks to record, would go on to sell ten million copies worldwide, becoming her most successful album. This was in 1984 when the singer was 45 years old. This began her career resurgence at a stage of life which, for women, mainstream media often attempts to paint as the “wrong side of 35.” The singer also rebranded her image into an even sexier persona, flying in the face of notions that women of a certain age no longer are allowed to express their sensuality and sexuality.

Turner wasn’t only a trailblazer; she was a figure who refused to be restrained by society’s expectations. She refused to stay silent regarding her abuse in an industry fraught with sexism (and racism). She didn’t play into respectability politics by shrinking away from her sexual public persona or playing into what a “lady” should behave like. Turner was unapologetic in pursuing her desire to be a superstar, playing on stage to thousands, and commanding the attention and accolades she deserved. The singer perhaps put it best, saying, “My legacy is that I stayed on course…from the beginning to the end because I believed in something inside of me.” She believed, and she made us believers throughout her career—she was simply the best.