6 Incendiary Live Tina Turner Performances – Billboard

The music world lost one of the all-time great rock stars when Tina Turner passed Wednesday (May 24), at the age of 83.

The former Ike & Tina Turner singer possessed the style, the songs and sass, her mid-‘80s solo comeback is the stuff of legend, and her longevity helped to redraw the lines for showbiz.

It was on the stage, however, where Turner was TNT. When the “Nutbush City Limits” star strutted her stuff, it was always pure heat. Explosive.

Below, Billboard compiles some of Turner’s top televised performances.

Turner had to wait for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but she made a terrific case for elevation during the 1989 ceremony. That year, Turner inducted Phil Spector and performed with a starring cast that included Bruce Springsteen, Little Richard, John Oates and more. Her closing performance of “River Deep – Mountain High,” her 1966 Spector-produced classic, was a sizzling highlight. In 1991, Spector inducted Ike & Tina Turner on their behalf, and in 2021, Tina was inducted as a solo artist by Angela Bassett, who had portrayed the singer in 1993’s docudrama What’s Love Got To Do With It.