Culture

Tina Turner fans heartbroken as star says goodbye to the limelight in eye-opening documentary

Tina Turner singer musical

Tina Turner speaks during the “Tina – The Tina Turner Musical” opening night at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 7 November 2019 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images)

Music legend Tina Turner is unlikely to ever perform on stage ever again, according to the directors of a new documentary about the singer’s life.

The documentary, Tina, reveals hidden aspects of Turner’s rise to fame, how she overcame abuse by her ex-husband Ike, her extraordinary career and her retirement from the music world. Directors TJ Martin and Daniel Lindsay combined hours of archive footage of Turner with contemporary interviews in which the legendary singer reflects on her life.

Turner has been living in Switzerland since 1995 and gave up her US citizenship in 2013, becoming a Swiss citizen. She returned to the spotlight in 2016 after revealing that she had been working on a musical based on her life story. The show, Tina, opened in London in April 2018.

The new documentary has been described by Turner as a “farewell” to her fans as she retires and says goodbye to the limelight. Lindsay told the PA news agency that Turner is “not someone who is going to come back and do another show”. He said when the filmmakers did their first interview with the “What’s Love Got To Do With It” singer, her possible return was “the first thing we talked about”.

“It’s near the end of the film that she says, ‘How do you bow out slowly, just go away?'” Lindsay said. “She has lived a remarkable life obviously, but she views her career as work, and when she retired in 2009, that was it for her.”

Martin added that he thought “this chapter of her life is fundamentally very different” from what she’s done in her life and whether she’s “actually achieved that sense of peace with her past”. He continued: “My instinct says that it’s a process, and I think it’s hard to quantify if being a participant in this film and in the musical are major variables in getting to that place, maybe they do help her feel like she closed the door, but now she’s in that process of acceptance.”

Viewers have already started reacting to the ‘heartbreaking’ new Tina Turner documentary, which was released on Sunday (28 March) on Sky Documentaries and Now TV.

The documentary has been widely praised by Turner’s fans, with some viewers comparing the treatment of the singer by the media to the revelations in the Framing Britney Spears documentary.

One person on Twitter wrote the interviews with Turner in the documentary – especially one where the singer said her life “wasn’t a good life” – “breaks my heart”. She added: “I love Tina Turner and hope that she finds peace.

“I appreciate it when older women tell the truth. Her story is going to help someone avoid the traumas she suffered.”

Journalist Esther Tseng said the documentary is a “must” watch for any fans of the singer. She wrote on Twitter: “I bow down. Such trauma and heartbreak for an absolute legend.”

One commenter wrote they hope “everybody watches the Tina Turner doc” and that the media “receives the same criticism it did after the Britney doc”. They added: “It’s a shame Tina was the biggest star in the world, and they kept asking about raggedy ass Ike.

“She left him, and they refused to let her escape the trauma.”

Another person wrote that some of Turner’s revelations in the documentary are “so painful” to hear. She said: “I don’t think I’ll ever get over Tina Turner looking back at her long life and saying that it wasn’t a good life, that the good could not outweigh the bad because of all the abuse and harm she endured.”

 

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