When Turner recruited Roger Davies to be her manager in the 1980s, she told him she wanted to pack stadiums like the Rolling Stones. One of the exciting things about Tina is that the documentary spends ample time celebrating her triumphs in middle age, when female artists are still so often sidelined as they get older. It was in some areas, but the goodness did not balance the bad.вЂќ ThatвЂ™s a hard notion to square with how much beauty, joy, and music the singer has contributed in her decades on this planet. One of the saddest parts of the documentary, to me, was when Turner frankly states she's lived a bad life: вЂњIt wasnвЂ™t a good life. In other words, not only did Turner live through a nightmare as a young woman, people never let her forget about it, no matter how hard she tried to distance herself from the painful memories. Turner refused to play herself, not wanting to retread her past, but she still sang all the musical numbers. вЂњItвЂ™s like a PandoraвЂ™s box.вЂќ Then there was also the 1993 film about Ike and Tina, WhatвЂ™s Love Got to Do With It, starring Angela Bassett as the singer and Laurence Fishburne as her abuser. вЂњThat story reached so many people who felt like they had to kind of keep their secrets locked away deep down,вЂќ says playwright Katori Hall in the documentary, who adapted TurnerвЂ™s story into a 2019 Broadway musical. ThatвЂ™s partly because other women were inspired to come forward with their own tales of abuse.

Turner tried to put the story to bed with her 1986 autobiography I, Tina, but instead of quelling the conversation, her transparency amplified it. Turner was more successful than sheвЂ™d ever been performing with Ike, yet the press constantly interrogated her about their relationship. In 1984, she topped the Billboard Hot 100 with 'What's Love Got to Do with It' when she was in her mid-40s, becoming the oldest female artist to do so at the time. Looking to extricate her image from IkeвЂ™s, the singer gave a tell-all interview to People magazine in 1981, detailing the вЂњtortureвЂќ her domineering and insecure ex-husband inflicted on her during their 16-year-long relationship. TurnerвЂ™s traumas have been trotted out again and again over the decades. And by retelling her story again, probably for the last time, the 81-year-old is cementing her legacy on her own terms, getting the last word and putting the painful parts of her life to rest. But then Tina pivots to TurnerвЂ™s triumphant second act. Their fraught relationship, IkeвЂ™s violence and manipulation, and the singerвЂ™s eventual escape dominate the first half of the film. ThatвЂ™s partly the case again in Tina, the new documentary. The fact that Turner is so preternaturally gifted is one of the many reasons it sucks that Ike Turner, the abusive partner who also launched her career, still factors so heavily into her story. вЂњI saw her dancing, and thatвЂ™s all I could look at,вЂќ LeвЂ™Jeune Fletcher, TurnerвЂ™s former backup singer and dancer, says in the film, adding: вЂњI was just so amazed at this woman.вЂќ So was Oprah Winfrey, who saw the star perform and thought, вЂњWhatever that is, I want some of that,вЂќ as she tells the camera. SheвЂ™s an unstoppable spectacle, shimmying feverishly in glittering fringe and wailing into microphones with the force of a thunderstorm. The footage of her performing through the decades is astounding. Tina says to her second husband, Erwin about the documentary, вЂњIвЂ™m going to America to say goodbye to my American fans and IвЂ™ll wrap it upвЂќ.The most important takeaway from Tina, the new HBO documentary about Tina Turner, is that sheвЂ™s one of the most dynamically talented entertainers to have ever done the thing. Tina Turner revealed she is in poor health, having struggled through kidney failure, a stroke and cancer in recent years. She has had many accolades and achievements throughout her life and this documentary intends to celebrate it as well as Tina TurnerвЂ™s final goodbye to her fans. Turner was the first black female artist to feature on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. This includes an intimate look at her first marriage to Ike Turner, which was abusive and her second marriage to Erwin Bach, which, by contrast, was filled with love.

In the documentary, Tina talks about her mother abandoning her and her siblings without telling anyone and the struggles of her life before and during fame. It shows how the 81-year-old Turner came from a humble background of cotton pickers and how she worked her way up in the music industry gaining her the title of Queen of Rock вЂnвЂ™ Roll.

Ike & tina turner