Tribute: 'What's Love Got to Do With It' singer Tina Turner is no more

Tina Turner and Eric Clapton at Wembley Arena, June 18, 1987. (Photo by fattkatt via Wikimedia Commons)

The year is 1985. And there’s no one else on that Grammys stage, just her. She's electrifying, singing 'What's Love Got to Do With It' - no backup singers or dancers. And for a young girl from India watching her perform from the nosebleed seats (best graduation present ever), the experience is unforgettable.

But my luck was a cup spilling over all the way back to India (via Zurich). The paternal unit was flying first class (on work) and I was relegated to cattle class. My excuse to enter the hallowed quiet was to hand him his diabetes meds. And unlike these days, the cabin crew was friendlier. I dutifully handed him the meds and turned around only to realise that my legs had turned to jelly. Sitting across the aisle was the woman with the best legs in the rock ‘n’ roll business. Tina Turner was flying to Zurich.

My encounter should have been a couple of minutes, but it felt like a lifetime to me. My mouth was open and I found myself at her feet. The queen asked me if she had other fans in India. I nodded vigorously because my jaw refused to get unstuck from the cabin floor. And then I said the dumbest thing anyone in my place could: I want to have legs like yours. How her laughter rang in my head for the rest of that flight. Why didn’t I say I wanted to write songs like hers, or write a song which she would sing… Later my dad said that Ms. Turner said, 'You have a good daughter there.’

And now she’s gone. It’s a difficult thing to process. Someone who sang 'What’s Love Got To Do With It', gave up her American citizenship to become Swiss because the love of her life Erwin Bach (German music producer) lived in Zurich.

Tina and Ike we know about, and the duo created beautiful music together. (Tina Turner would later collaborate with Eric Clapton, The Who, David Bowie and perform with other icons including Janis Joplin and Bryan Adams.) Tina met Ike at a nightclub when she was only 16 years old. Kings Of Rhythm soon became Ike and Tina. Their albums together are just incredible, but the tracks 'River Deep Mountain High', 'Proud Mary' and 'Nutbush City Limits' are perhaps best known.

No matter what you say, her voice is as big as her hair. And the strength of the emotions that her voice could convey are unparalleled. Jump through time and hear the pain in her voice as she sings Private Dancer.

Tina Turner’s songs have stayed with me through my life. Whether I discovered that I had been A Fool in Love, Addicted to Love, It’s only Love or when crying buckets hearing her voice sing Missing You, the one song that keeps me going is this one:

She ruled Europe with her music. Her one tour earned her over $100 million in Europe alone and her single concert in Wembley in London grossed over $3 million! She was not just a powerhouse performer, but you can look beyond her legs, then hear what she has to say on the Letterman show:

Born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, Tina grew up with relatives, picking cotton and dreaming about becoming a nurse. Ike Turner 'discovered’ her voice and married her. While she became a star performer in the revue, he became the abusive husband. I was glad to read about her finding love again (even though her kids hated her going away to another continent and never looking back).

When I hear her say, ‘Darlin!’ I cross my fingers and then wish that 'It’s Gonna Work Out Fine’ just as she says in the album.

She sang for the movies as well. Think James Bond. And suddenly you are taken back to the time when you played a video game called Golden Eye 007 (shoot and kill game for Nintendo DS).

I don’t care much for the movie, but the song is so Tina Turner:

‘We don’t need another hero/we don’t need to know the way home/ All we want is life beyond Thunderdome’ are words etched on my heart, and even though I love David Bowie singing ‘We could be heroes’, in my head I’m singing, ‘And, I wonder when we are ever gonna change, change/ Living under the fear, 'til nothing else remains’...

The number of awards (12 Grammys, Kennedy Centre Honors, MTV best performers and more) she has received could fill an apartment, but the legacy of music she leaves behind is beyond compare.

And this song will stay with her fans for ever and ever. I will always wish there were cell phones when I met her, but it’s like youngsters say today IYKYK. I will never forget Tina Turner. She was as the song says, ‘Simply the best’. The world of music will miss her performances, her energy. Her unique voice.