(Credits: Far Out / Duncan Raban)
Mon 23 February 2026 2:00, UK
When you look back at some of our biggest and most explosive stars in music history, it’s hard to find any who were as commanding of the spotlight as Tina Turner.
Perhaps it was because she had such a tumultuous journey, or that the stage was the only place she truly felt alive – either way, when she got up there to sing, the entire room went up in flames. As she once put it herself, “Music is my life, it’s how I express my soul. When I sing, I feel free.”
Beyond her obvious impact in the R&B and soul arena, Turner also achieved the seemingly impossible by becoming an icon among the more established rock stars, embodying the kind of fearless, give-it-everything attitude that many of history’s most tenacious frontmen then took on for themselves. One such figure was Mick Jagger, who once said that Turner “helped me so much when I was young”, no doubt in more ways than one.
The biggest turning point in Turner’s story was in the 1980s, when she made the conscious decision to reclaim her own story after years of suffering and abuse, and at this point, she could have given up her career and time in the spotlight, but instead, she launched an explosive comeback with songs that placed her journey and experiences in a new light.
Perhaps this is why, no matter the tone of her music – happy, sad, joyful or triumphant – there’s always a heady emotional takeaway. Even those you find yourself singing along and dancing to in a random, gritty nightclub in town often have you feeling somewhat closer to euphoria, and it all stems from Turner’s ability to imbue music with a sense of unity and love, even in the pain or chaos.
The song that solidified her position as a soloist, ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’, tells you everything you need to know about her fighting spirit – at first, she didn’t know if it was the right fit for her, and felt like it was a little too pop-leaning to be anything good. However, after pushing to be able to give it more “gravity” and “raw emotion”, she pulled it off and made it entirely her own.
Of course, many such achievements and milestones came from her own talent and resilience. But as with most legends, there’s always an initial foundation that inspires them to greatness. In Turner’s case, her legacy is so vast that it’s hard to think of anybody who was a big enough influence to shape her into the star that she became, but she once said there was only one person good enough. Well, technically, two.
“I always did like Ray Charles,” she said. “He was my only influence, because I always liked to sing more or less like men sing, and sound like they sound. Like he and Sam Cooke were my influences.”
When you think about how Charles became a voice that people associated with the ultimate embodiment of soulfulness and emotion, it makes complete sense that Turner used him as a framework for achieving the same with her own vocals. After all, the depth they could both bring, even to more lighthearted songs, speaks volumes about their shared musical mantra and ability to tell stories using just their voices.