Tina Turner - true talent never ages

When I was writing my preview of the upcoming movie Notorious, I was thinking about how little Christopher Wallace was in the world and music in general. It’s sad to say but the thing that catapulted him to beyond superstar status was his death, kind of like what has since happened to Heath Ledger.


And then I noticed today a review of Tina Turner who performed Monday at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Tina Turner is 69 years old. And the performance was reviewed as a knockout event that most younger entertainers today couldn’t begin to match.

“But it was "Proud Mary," the Creedence song she put her stamp on 37 years ago, that still can't be beat, from slow and swampy nice to explosive and frantic rough…

Turner began the evening telling the mostly middle-aged crowd that she was offering "a show of my past." But she delivered a confirmation that in the present, she's every bit deserving of the marquee celebration at night's end that flashed T-I-N-A, an icon-- no, make that a queen -- of American music.”

That’s talent. Nearly 70 and she can pull an audience after 8 years in retirement. She’s had a career that’s spanned 52 years. She’s earned 8 Grammies, a NAACP Image Award, and is a 2 time member of the Grammy Hall of Fame. And she still reportedly has legs that most women 1/3 her age wish they could have.

Considering her sparse monetary upbringing, the horrendous marriage, and her rise fall and rise in popularity in her music career you would think she might deserve a movie as opposed to a dead crack dealer. Oh wait, she did have a major studio motion picture made about her life in 1993 starring Angela Bassett. Good film too.

Tina Turner just confirms something I have always believed. Talent is rare, and those with it can survive the test of time as well as life. Those without it can be no less successful but have to work harder to gain it. But those that gain success without effort or earning it will always lose it – quickly and usually for dumb reasons.

20 years from now almost every rapper since 1992 will be completely forgotten. Some won’t make it 5 years before you won’t recognize their name. But Tina Turner will still be on the radio. And I’m hopeful that she will still be performing at that time, with legs that will still probably be better than women half her age.