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Tina Turner In Concert At MEN Arena

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I was all excited about going to Tina Turner’s concert at MEN Arena on Friday, 3rd of April 2009 (as were a few of my colleagues and fellow Tweeps). I’ve come to know her through Simply the Best video clip; but she really has entered my horizon after her duet with Eros Ramazzotti for Cose della Vita. The clips were often shown on Russian TV, although I also remember some Russian critics laughing off her performance skills. That was at the time when the “Western” music began to make mainstream waves onto the post-Soviet Russian music scene.

Speaking in online marketing terms, my return was higher than the investment. Comparing Tina’s concert to Barbra Streisand’s visit to Manchester in 2007, it was cheaper and more fan-friendly – in the precise sense that none of us, as you will be able to see for yourself, was stopped from taking photographs and otherwise commemorating Tina’s performance. Of course, I won’t compare their styles, as both Turner and Streisand are energetic and inspiring, but in very different ways.

The concert, however, made me think about one thing. I shared my thought on my Russian blog, and it was confirmed by a friend who went to Johnny Winter’s concert. It is possible to forget, when you see Tina’s dancing on the elevated stage above the viewers, that at the end of November 2009 she turns 70. The whopping 70 years. As much as I understand that music has been her life and love since the early age, it is incredible to see such power, talent and beauty producing a show that is emotionally, physically and logistically demanding. I mean, there were no less that 5 changes of costumes!!! Yes, there is experience, of course…

…but what it makes me think about is today’s “stars”. Be they actors or singers, now and again you find them going out of ideas by the time they’re barely 40. At 40 years of age they consider themselves accomplished enough to say that they want to retire. I don’t deny the fact that one CAN accomplish a lot by the time they’re 40… but it would be such a pity had that “lot” been everything a person could really achieve in their professional lifetime. And I’m not talking of the likes of John Lennon who was killed two month after celebrating his 40th birthday. I’m talking about perfectly able – and apparently gifted – people who somehow burn out of desire to explore their potential further after a certain period of time. Again, we could cite entertainment and show business as extremely competitive industries, and maybe admit that to always stay on top in these industries is extremely hard. And perhaps even speculate about whether being critically acclaimed, commercially successful and infinitely creative always go hand in hand or follow each other simultaneously – and look at Tina Turner as one of examples.

But then there will be the likes of Clint Eastwood, Johnny Winter, Michel Legrand, and many more artists whose creativity didn’t burn out with age. Maybe the real question should be why they were there – at stage, in cinema, etc – in the first place? Was it just a way to earn money, a job that could be changed or abandoned? Or was it something more? A desire to push the world somewhere, even if the benefits thereof were rather blurry? Or even merely a desire to say something in your own voice and make it resonate for decades? I’d like to think it is “something more”. And let Tina show us what it is.

Links of interest:

More photos from Manchester concert on Flickr
Official Tina Turner website
Tina Turner’s world tour official site
Tina Turner on YouTube
Tina Turner fan blog
Tina Turner official fan site
Tina Turner on Wikipedia

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