September 28, 2025
The statue’s unveiling was a part of town’s Tina Turner Heritage Days, which celebrates the early lifetime of the singer.
Tina Turner has quietly been honored in her hometown of Brownsville, Tennessee, for the previous decade however on Sept. 27, the Rock ‘n’ Roll legend acquired one other honor, this one solid in bronze.
In response to Billboard, Turner’s statue sits close to her outdated highschool, Carver Excessive College, in shut proximity to the group of Nutbush, the place she grew up, in Heritage Park, positioned throughout the road from the highschool.
Turner’s sculpture was designed by the Atlanta-based, world-famous artist Fred Ajanogha, who aimed to seize her signature wild hair and versatile motion by means of the statue’s posing.
Earlier than Turner died on Could 24, 2023, she immortalized Nutbush by means of her hit music “Nutbush Metropolis Limits,” and left her imprint on the American music scene by means of different hit songs similar to “Proud Mary,” “Personal Dancer,” and arguably her most well-known music that turned the title of an Angela Bassett-led movie, “What’s Love Acquired To Do With It,” that recounted her tumultuous and abusive marriage to Ike Turner.
Turner’s lengthy profession earned her an extended checklist of admirers, from Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to ’90’s R&B icon Mariah Carey to Beyoncé and the affectionately bestowed title of the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, a royal title she additionally shared with Little Richard, who was alternatively generally known as the Actual King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
The statue’s unveiling was a part of town’s Tina Turner Heritage Days, which celebrates the early lifetime of the singer, earlier than she left town as a teen to pursue her goals as a recording artist.
Karen Prepare dinner, buddies with one in every of Turner’s cousins, traveled from Georgia to attend the occasion, which she stated reminded her of listening to Turner together with her mom.
“She’s an ideal artist, I really like her music,” Prepare dinner instructed the outlet. “My mother listened to her so much. It’s an enormous deal and an ideal factor for the group to have Tina Turner in her small city.”
In response to Marianne Dunavant, group relations supervisor with the Ford Motor Firm, their $150,000 contribution in direction of the statue’s development is a part of their dedication to listening to the voices of the area people.
“We wish to protect historical past for our youth, proper, so after we’re not right here these statues will nonetheless inform that story and keep in mind that Tina Turner got here from this group and we wish our younger individuals to know that they will do something they need and thrive too,” she instructed WBBJ 7 Eyewitness Information.
At the moment, a jukebox musical, “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” is touring throughout the nation, after taking a short hiatus to recast. The play is directed by Phyllida Lloyd and was written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Katori Corridor together with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins.
The unique Broadway run of the manufacturing, which starred Adrienne Warren within the titular position opened in 2019, and Turner was form sufficient to offer the budding starlet some recommendation, even when she was cautious of one more depiction of her life for an viewers.
In an op-ed for Rolling Stone, Turner was, nicely, Tina Turner, as she defined the way it all got here to be.
“My life has been fairly a narrative. The story of just a little lady who grew up with large ambitions; the story of a naive younger girl who entered right into a troubled marriage with nothing however her voice and her goals and who escaped — simply barely — with nothing however her voice and her goals; the story of a middle-aged singer with sturdy winds towards her who discovered success and real love with the person she by no means thought she’d meet. I considered that, and of all of the individuals who inform me that my story provides them hope and is my legacy, and I stated, “Sure.” Then, I sat again to look at director Phyllida Lloyd and author Katori Corridor do what they do greatest.”
Turner continued, providing excessive reward to Warren. “She took all of it in, labored more durable than onerous, and stepped into the footwear. She reworked herself into the individual she wanted to be. With each observe and each transfer of her hips, Adrienne is pure Tina. She has my admiration and my blessing. In reality, I wish to say that I wish to thank her mother and father as a result of now that she’s onstage, I can actually retire.”
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