Anna Mae Bullock, popularly known as Tina Turner, is a cultural icon. She’s dubbed as the Queen of Rock n Roll and R&B Legend. Tina, however, has far more stories to tell than her fame and glam in the entertainment industry. Her life was riddled with so many struggles. She had an abusive father and fell into an abusive marriage. Her career dipped and rose over the years. She didn’t have the perfect childhood, the perfect marriage or the perfect career, but she kept going. I had the opportunity to watch The Tina Turner musical, and her life is one fantastic story worth telling.
Life Lessons from Tina the Musical
I was outside of the Aldwych Theater, in London and I had just finished seeing Tina the Musical. It’s a story about Tina Turner and it reminded me about the power of stories but in a very different way.
I am somebody who grew up knowing who Tina Turner was, but a lot of the story happened before I was born or when I was super young. I was reminded of a few things: just because somebody is famous, has a name, people know who they are, that doesn’t mean that they’re financially secure. It doesn’t mean that things behind the scenes aren’t falling.
It was amazing to see the parts of Tina Turner that I knew as a child, as somebody born in 1977 and was a child in the 80s. I know ‘What’s Love Got to Do with It’, but that’s where she was finally coming into her own. All the time before then was a kind of hell on earth for her.
Overcoming Struggles
Another thing I was reminded of is that the power of our stories is in the “hell on earth” moments. The powerful part of this story was seeing her struggle and seeing how she had to overcome her strife in order to pick herself up again and again.
If we had just come here and all we did was listen to the hits of Tina Turner and go, “Oh! We love Tina! Tina’s great, I love these songs” we would’ve been entertained but we wouldn’t have been moved the way they were tonight when we saw her struggle. We saw her physically and emotionally get beat down, and she chose to overcome her by making the choice to keep fighting. Making the choice to continue to show up to share her story over and over again not only in this musical but in her career through song.
I just have to continue to encourage you to do that. Keep telling your stories because you never know whose lives you’re gonna change. Tell a story, change the world.
I hoped you enjoyed my synopsis of Tina. I have to give a big shout out to Carl Daikeler -my friend, business partner, beach buddy CEO for hooking me up with these tickets to see one of the producers. I appreciate it!