Whitesnake

• Born in 1939, Tina was older than my mother and nearly 40 years older than me.
• But to me, she was a complete goddess from the moment I first encountered her.
• She remains the only Black woman to have been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• It was also a sound that enabled her to move beyond soul and blues in her solo career.

A genre-fluid singer

• The very next year, she performed the role of the Acid Queen in film of The Who’s psychedelic operetta fantasy, Tommy.
• The role gave its name to an album featuring several notable rock covers by Turner, such as Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love.
• From the early 1980s, Turner made what has repeatedly been described as one of the most remarkable career comebacks of the century.
• Even 40 years on, the idea of a woman in her mid-40s singing a pop song about sex work is somewhat surprising.

A musical uniter

• Turner’s musical agility allowed her to inhabit contradictory musical spaces simultaneously.
• There is an exuberance here that crosses times and identities to bring a crowd together in the ritual of “rolling on the river”.
• There alongside them is Turner with songs like The Best, We Don’t Need Another Hero and Nutbush City Limits.