Tina Turner

Kristine McKenna's review of Tina Turner's new album ("Break Every Rule") reads more like a character assassination than a serious music critique (Record Rack, Sept. 7). Alternating in tone between bitchy and outright mean, McKenna spends the first two paragraphs attacking Turner for wearing wigs, having a successful comeback album, making a movie, being interviewed by People magazine and leaving an allegedly abusive husband. She goes on to say Nina Simone, Etta James and Dusty Springfield can sing rings around Turner.

You should still be talking about: Ike and Tina Turner Yes, Tina put her abusive marriage with Ike far behind her and became a music icon all by herself. But to love Tina is to love her roots, and "Collection," a 10-CD box set, brings back all the goodies: "River Deep, Mountain High," "Proud Mary" and many, many more.

Tina Turner will play an Indian goddess in a new Merchant Ivory film and sing Indian classical songs, a newspaper report said Tuesday. Famous for power-packed musical performances in high heels and leather miniskirts, the 64-year-old singer will star in "The Goddess," the Times of India said.

Nearly A century before Tina Turner's current and possibly final tour, Sarah Bernhardt, the greatest actress of her time, made a similar journey. At 71, Bernhardt did not possess the remarkable health the 68-year-old Turner displayed Monday at the Staples Center. Instead of flashing two still-mighty legs for everyone to admire, Bernhardt hid one under her skirts; the other had been amputated after an infection, and she sat in a chair to deliver her soliloquies. Yet the Divine Sarah's voice and physical charisma still enraptured audiences in the U.S. and beyond, and the very fact of the tour, so seemingly defiant of mortality, added to an already considerable legend.

Ike Turner, the musician who gave the world what many historians consider the first rock 'n' roll record -- "Rocket 88" in 1951 -- but bitterly acknowledged in his later years that he was most famous for being the abusive husband of Tina Turner, died Wednesday in suburban San Diego. He was 76. Turner died at his home in San Marcos, said Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner's musical career. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Carlos Santana's song "Game of Love" with Michelle Branch was a huge hit and even won the pair a Grammy. Still, for years, Santana wished that fans could have heard the original version -- with Tina Turner as his duet partner. In October, the guitar god will get his wish. Included on the release of "Ultimate Santana," a greatest-hits disc, will be the "Game of Love" song -- one version featuring Branch, and one featuring Turner.

A man dubbed the "Tina Turner bandit" is being sought by police and the FBI in connection with a string of recent bank robberies in Orange and San Diego counties. The man, who was armed with a handgun in each of the robberies, was nicknamed after the popular singer because of a wig he donned during some of the crimes, said John Meiter, an investigator with the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Can Tina Turner work "Twenty Four Seven" for another career comeback? Watch this week for the 61-year-old pop legend to follow up Sunday's scheduled Super Bowl pregame performance with the release Tuesday of her 10th solo album, "Twenty Four Seven"--and the announcement on Thursday's "Oprah Winfrey" show of her upcoming U.S. tour dates. The new disc is already a hit in Europe--where it was released in October--and the song "When the Heartache Is Over" is getting airplay now on U.S.

Brian Gibson, an Emmy-winning British documentary filmmaker who earned acclaim in America for his biopics of Josephine Baker and Tina Turner, has died. He was 59. Gibson died Sunday in a London hospital after a two-year battle with Ewings Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

You may not respect "What's Love Got to Do With It," but enjoying it is inescapable. A high-energy mixture of spectacular music, vigorous acting and cliched situations, this is a rough-and-rowdy fairy tale with a feminist subtext, and if that sounds perplexing, "Love" so pumps up the volume you won't have much time to think about it.

Proving the adage that old pop stars don't ever really retire (they just fade away until the time is right for a comeback), iconic soul/R&B diva Tina Turner announced that she would return to the road for the first time in eight years. The 68-year-old Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy-winning singer will embark on a North American tour scheduled to reach Staples Center on Oct. 13. In 2000, Turner played a farewell world tour marking the end of her career as a live performer. But her part in a well-received duet at this year's Grammys lured the singer back to the touring circuit.

The pop world has focused for so long on the remarkably sensual energy and excitement of Ike & Tina Turner's old live show that it is often easy to forget the duo also made some dynamic records. But even if you have wanted to go back and check up on the pair's records from the 1960s and 1970s, it was difficult to know just which "best of" collection to buy because the Turners recorded for so many labels.

The memorial service Friday for R&B stalwart and rock 'n' roll pioneer Ike Turner was much like the life of the troubled star himself -- rich in music and applause, reflexively defensive about the nature of his legacy and, for good or bad, most memorable for its moments of controversy.

Cultural icons can't choose what they come to represent. Ike Turner was an icon; that was his burden and his punishment. Loving him was not a possibility for many who discovered his genius after his repellent secrets had been revealed. Appreciating him requires coming to terms with the double bind of rock and soul-era sexuality, a liberating force underpinned by racism, female objectification and machismo.

The last time I saw Ike Turner he had just turned 70, but he looked great, played piano and guitar with phenomenal power, and took his listeners from Delta blues through classic R&B, rock 'n' roll and the golden age of soul. Turner not only knew all of that music first-hand, he helped invent a lot of it.

Ike Turner, the musician who gave the world what many historians consider the first rock 'n' roll record -- "Rocket 88" in 1951 -- but bitterly acknowledged in his later years that he was most famous for being the abusive husband of Tina Turner, died Wednesday in suburban San Diego. He was 76. Turner died at his home in San Marcos, said Scott M. Hanover of Thrill Entertainment Group, which managed Turner's musical career. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Ike Turner is furious. The 61-year-old band leader is bitter about the bad rap he says he's gotten from "What's Love Got to Do With It," the new movie about his turbulent relationship with former wife and musical partner Tina Turner. In the film, based on Tina Turner's 1985 autobiography, "I, Tina," Ike is depicted as an unfaithful and ill-tempered drug addict who beats Tina repeatedly and at one point, even rapes her.

Nearly A century before Tina Turner's current and possibly final tour, Sarah Bernhardt, the greatest actress of her time, made a similar journey. At 71, Bernhardt did not possess the remarkable health the 68-year-old Turner displayed Monday at the Staples Center. Instead of flashing two still-mighty legs for everyone to admire, Bernhardt hid one under her skirts; the other had been amputated after an infection, and she sat in a chair to deliver her soliloquies. Yet the Divine Sarah's voice and physical charisma still enraptured audiences in the U.S. and beyond, and the very fact of the tour, so seemingly defiant of mortality, added to an already considerable legend.

Carlos Santana's song "Game of Love" with Michelle Branch was a huge hit and even won the pair a Grammy. Still, for years, Santana wished that fans could have heard the original version -- with Tina Turner as his duet partner. In October, the guitar god will get his wish. Included on the release of "Ultimate Santana," a greatest-hits disc, will be the "Game of Love" song -- one version featuring Branch, and one featuring Turner.

Pop star Beyonce Knowles brought usually reserved Washingtonians to their feet Sunday night as she paid tribute to singer Tina Turner, one of five recipients of this year's Kennedy Center Honors. As Knowles strutted across the stage "Tina-style," performing Turner's 1971 hit "Proud Mary" and wearing a gown once owned by the singer, the politicians, actors and musicians in the audience -- which included President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney -- moved to the pounding beat.