Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour

Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour
Tour by Tina Turner
Promotional poster for the tour
Associated albumTina!
Start dateOctober 1, 2008 (2008-10-01)
End dateMay 5, 2009 (2009-05-05)
Legs2
No. of shows
  • 37 in North America
  • 53 in Europe
  • 90 total
Attendance1.2 million
Box office$132.5 million
($180.74 million in 2022 dollars)
WebsiteTour website (defunct)
Tina Turner concert chronology

Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour was the eleventh and final concert tour by singer Tina Turner. It was the first tour by Turner in eight years, following her record-breaking "Twenty Four Seven Tour". The trek marked the singer's 50th year in music—since joining Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm in St. Louis, Missouri. In conjunction with the tour, Turner released the compilation album, Tina!. Beginning October 1, 2008, and concluded on May 5, 2009.

With the tour, Turner continued her success in concert sales. The North American leg of the tour played 37 sold-out performances, earning over $47.7 million—becoming one of the biggest tours in the territory for 2008. The success continued for the European leg. Turner played 47 sold-out performances, earning over $84.8 million—becoming the 9th highest earning tour in 2009. The tour was seen by over one million spectators and grossed over $130 million. The concerts received additional accolades, receiving an "Excellence Award" from Live Design Magazine.

Background

A brand new stage show that will feature hit after hit spanning Turner's entire career, with a spectacular production including the singer's top-notch band, innovative choreography, hi-tech lighting and much more. (...) The set, the production, the songs, and Turner's unique stage presence will delight her legions of fans who have followed the legendary diva's extraordinary creative journey, while seducing new admirers and proving that her vocal majesty still continues its reign to this day.

In 2008, Turner made her first appearance on U.S. television for the 50th Grammy Awards since her 2005 album promotional tour. On the show, she performed a medley of "What's Love Got to Do with It" and "Better Be Good to Me" as well as "Proud Mary" with Beyoncé. In the same night, she received an award for her contribution to River: The Joni Letters. Several months later, the singer appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Cher concerning their performance history. This is where Turner announced she was embarking on a world tour. She stated it was the best time for her to go on tour as her peers were performing well on the touring circuit. She continued to say she wanted to do it before it was too late. In sequential, Turner says actress and friend Sophia Loren suggested the singer reconsider retirement because her fans wanted to see her again. Turner was also encouraged to return to the stage following the overwhelming response from her Grammy performance. She further remarks:

"I was at the Armani show in Milan just chatting with Sophia Loren. I told her I was taking a break. She said for how long … I said oh, seven years. She said, 'Break over. People want to see you. Get back to work'. […] After [performing at] the Grammys when I got home to Zürich, people would come up to me in the restaurant, in the ladies room, on the street … everywhere. I started getting lots of little slips of paper and napkins with notes from fans. Some of them were so touching about my life, or a song and how it helped them. Each time I kept the note ... and suddenly there was a pile. I called my manager and said, 'It's time!'"

Originally known as "Tina!: Live in Concert", Turner decided to have the tour commemorate her fiftieth year performing on stage. Turner first performed at Club Imperial with Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm in 1958 (at the time, Turner was known as "Little Ann"). The tour was sponsored by Amway Global and received early praise from the media and fans. Tour dates were announced in May 2008. While promoting the tour on The Early Show, Turner stated she was ready to return to perform in America and perform in familiar cities. She followed with saying she wanted the tour to start in Missouri since that is where her music career began. Rehearsals for the tour began in late September 2008 at Sprint Center in Kansas City. Production rehearsals began in July 2008 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The singer gave Access Hollywood an exclusive backstage glimpse at rehearsals and a photoshoot for the tour and upcoming album, Tina!: Her Greatest Hits. The success of the tour was immediate as many shows sold out within minutes. Turner announced additional dates in the United States and release dates for Europe. The tour was a triumph for Turner and continued her success as one of the biggest concert draws in history. The show was recorded for a live album and DVD release entitled, Tina Live.

Stage

Tina Turner on the stage.

The stage for the tour was designed by Mark Fisher, who has designed Turner's stages since 1983. The stage itself is a mixture of elements from the singer's previous stages including "The Staircase", "The Claw" and "The Iris". Fisher formed a creative team with Turner's manager Roger Davies, Baz Halpin and Toni Basil to not only design the stage but also the show. The team wanted to feature elements reminiscent of Turner's previous stage productions. The stage measurements were 52.5' deep by 70' wide and weighed 75 tons. The lower tier featured an airlift while the upper tier contained a scissorlift. Due to budget constraints, the staircase was replaced with a small platform that lowered Turner onto the stages. On the upper tier of the stage featured two LED screens that opened resembling the effect used on the Twenty Four Seven Tour. A new stage prop known as "The Cage" was used for the performance of "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)".

Concert synopsis

The show began with an updated version of The Beatles' "Get Back". As the song ends, the curtain rises, revealing Turner on a platform 30' above the stage. The platform lowers as the opening bars for "Steamy Windows" begin to play. The singer quickly transitions into "Typical Male" before she greets the audience, telling them, "I want you to have a good time". This leads into "River Deep – Mountain High" followed by "What You Get Is What You See", where Turner addresses male members of the audience. Turner goes into 'Better Be Good to Me" ending with a sing along with the audience. The song concludes with a dance break featuring "The Ninjas". The performance shows the two dancers fighting with a security guard as the show flows into "Won't Get Fooled Again". Turner returns onstage to perform "Acid Queen". She follows with the performance of her biggest hit "What's Love Got to Do with It?". As the song ends, Turner seeks a call and response from the audience, asking them to say "What's love got to do with it?". "Private Dancer" comes next leading into another dance interlude by The Ninjas. After a costume change, Turner returns onstage to perform "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" as Aunty Entity. The show then proceeds to a 30-minute intermission and returns with a video montage set to "I Don't Wanna Fight".

Turner reappears to perform "Help", "Let's Stay Together", "Undercover Agent for the Blues" and "I Can't Stand the Rain" in an acoustic setting. She returns to her rock prowess with a medley of The Rolling Stones' "Jumping Jack Flash" and "It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)". The singer departs the stage once again and her background dancers (known as "Flowers") perform a tango-influenced routine to "007 Theme". The video screens open to reveal "The Iris" and Turner begins to perform "GoldenEye". The singer then goes to the lower tier of the stage to perform "Addicted to Love" and "The Best". Taking a moment to introduce the band, Turner closes the show with her rendition of "Proud Mary". For the encore, Turner returns to perform "Nutbush City Limits" on "The Claw". The cherry picker takes Turner around the audience as she asks them to sing "Nutbush". As Turner ends the night, she performs "Be Tender with Me Baby".

Critical response

Turner received high praise from both critics and spectators before the tour commenced. For the inaugural concert, Flannery Cashill (The Pitch) wrote that the show was nothing short of "amazing". He elaborates, "After several teasing nice-and-easy near starts, the arena burst into 'Proud Mary' and Turner and her dancers delivered all of the moves – the paddle-wheel arms, the steps, the dips, the various swim strokes, the thrusts of the glorious mane, all of it atop those stilettos." At the concert for the Staples Center, David Wild (Rolling Stone) described the show as "slick and soulful." He continued, "[...] last night was proof positive that the former Anna Mae Bullock still deserves our R-E-S-P-E-C-T. By the [end of the night] the Queen had already touched her royal subjects the old fashioned way – nice and rough."

J. Freedom du Lac (The Washington Post) called the singer "a force to be reckoned with" following her performance at the Verizon Center. He continues, "Turner put on a swaggering, high-voltage rock spectacle in which she easily dispatched any concerns that she's become some sort of museum piece -- even if she was presented on a pedestal: The concert opened with the world's sexiest sexagenarian standing on a platform, some 20 feet above her band." For her concert at the famous Madison Square Garden, Ben Ratliff (The New York Times) called the show "nice and rough". He states, "On solid ground in high heels, she was a ferocious, shaky blur. If Motown choreography intimates the smooth stroke of a cello, hers is the sound of an outboard motor. That strobing physical language, heavily borrowed by Mick Jagger in his youth, was what stuck in your head as you left." These sentiments were shared by Jonathan Cohen (Billboard). He explains, "The point: this woman defies so much conventional wisdom that being in her presence for two-plus hours is a bit of a head trip."

As the tour moved to Europe, the praise continued. After Turner performed at the Lanxess Arena, Tom Horan (The Sunday Telegraph) pens Turner "showed why she is a goddess in Germany." He further says, "If you had to say what that feeling is with Turner, it's a feeling of triumph: I've come this far, I've done it – I'm still standing." Ian Gittins (The Guardian) gave her performance at The O2 Arena four out of five stars. He explains, "Crucially, her voice has not been damaged by its long layoff." His views were shared by Euan Ferguson (The Observer). He says, "It was a moment of perfect triumph: for the grit and feathers of her voice, for its still being there; and for her, not just still being alive, but for doing this."

Broadcasts and recordings

The tour was chronicled on the CD/DVD released entitled, Tina Live. The recording was filmed on March 21 and 22 at the GelreDome football stadium in the Netherlands. The package includes an audio CD featuring selections from the show and a DVD. The CD/DVD combo was released in September 2009 (in Europe) and October (in the United States) also released on August 5, 2013, a Blu-ray was released in Mexico only with a 720p High Definition transfer but the release cuts four songs including Typical Male, What's Love Got To Do With It, We Don't Need Another Hero & Be Tender With Me Baby.

Set list

The following set list was obtained from the October 1, 2008, show in Kansas City, Missouri. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.


Tour dates

Date City Country Venue Attendance Revenue
North America
October 1, 2008 Kansas City United States Sprint Center 26,884 / 26,884 $2,831,553
October 3, 2008 Chicago United Center 25,138 / 25,138 $2,816,458
October 4, 2008
October 6, 2008 Rosemont Allstate Arena 11,766 / 11,766 $1,234,115
October 8, 2008 Kansas City Sprint Center
October 9, 2008 Minneapolis Target Center 11,495 / 11,495 $1,118,743
October 13, 2008 Los Angeles Staples Center 27,066 / 27,066 $2,932,205
October 14, 2008 Anaheim Honda Center 11,597 / 11,597 $1,135,039
October 16, 2008 Los Angeles Staples Center
October 19, 2008 San Jose HP Pavilion 24,126 / 24,126 $2,477,934
October 20, 2008
October 22, 2008 Sacramento ARCO Arena 12,665 / 12,665 $1,343,774
October 24, 2008 Glendale Jobing.com Arena 13,129 / 13,129 $1,547,766
October 26, 2008 Dallas American Airlines Center 13,747 / 13,747 $1,508,500
October 27, 2008 Houston Toyota Center 11,950 / 11,950 $1,238,762
October 30, 2008 Miami American Airlines Arena 10,885 / 10,885 $1,043,106
November 2, 2008 Sunrise BankAtlantic Center 12,769 / 12,769 $1,468,461
November 5, 2008 Orlando Amway Arena 11,544 / 11,544 $1,224,534
November 9, 2008 Atlanta Philips Arena 26,028 / 26,028 $2,585,972
November 10, 2008
November 13, 2008 Toronto Canada Air Canada Centre 44,587 / 44,587 $3,842,065
November 16, 2008 Boston United States TD Banknorth Garden 24,845 / 24,845 $2,632,184
November 17, 2008
November 20, 2008 Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills 13,416 / 13,416 $976,816
November 23, 2008 Washington, D.C. Verizon Center 27,257 / 27,257 $3,016,512
November 24, 2008
November 26, 2008 Newark Prudential Center 25,917 / 25,917 $2,133,978
November 27, 2008
November 29, 2008 Philadelphia Wachovia Spectrum 10,820 / 10,820 $909,968
December 1, 2008 New York City Madison Square Garden 13,887 / 13,887 $1,782,685
December 3, 2008 Uniondale Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum 25,005 / 25,005 $2,571,933
December 4, 2008
December 6, 2008 Hartford XL Center 11,848 / 11,848 $1,122,830
December 8, 2008 Montreal Canada Bell Centre 25,767 / 25,767 $2,325,184
December 10, 2008
December 12, 2008 Toronto Air Canada Centre
December 13, 2008
Europe
January 14, 2009 Cologne Germany Lanxess Arena
January 15, 2009
January 18, 2009
January 19, 2009
January 22, 2009 Antwerp Belgium Sportpaleis 54,573 / 54,573 $6,158,387
January 23, 2009
January 26, 2009 Berlin Germany O2 World
January 27, 2009
January 30, 2009 Hamburg Color Line Arena
January 31, 2009
February 3, 2009
February 4, 2009 Hannover TUI Arena
February 7, 2009 Vienna Austria Wiener Stadthalle
February 8, 2009
February 11, 2009 Antwerp Belgium Sportpaleis
February 12, 2009
February 15, 2009 Zurich Switzerland Hallenstadion
February 16, 2009
February 19, 2009 Mannheim Germany SAP Arena
February 20, 2009
February 23, 2009 Munich Olympiahalle
February 24, 2009
February 27, 2009
February 28, 2009
March 3, 2009 London England The O2 Arena 86,458 / 89,080 $9,207,835
March 4, 2009
March 7, 2009
March 8, 2009
March 16, 2009 Paris France Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy 32,834 / 35,656 $4,235,687
March 17, 2009
March 21, 2009 Arnhem Netherlands GelreDome 88,693 / 96,499 $8,430,511
March 22, 2009
March 26, 2009 Dublin Ireland The O2
March 27, 2009
March 30, 2009 Manchester England Manchester Evening News Arena
March 31, 2009
April 3, 2009
April 4, 2009
April 7, 2009 Birmingham National Indoor Arena
April 8, 2009
April 11, 2009 Dublin Ireland The O2
April 12, 2009
April 17, 2009 Fornebu Norway Telenor Arena 15,014 / 17,050 $1,737,664
April 19, 2009 Stockholm Sweden Ericsson Globe 19,481 / 21,748 $2,374,688
April 20, 2009
April 23, 2009 Helsinki Finland Hartwall Areena 22,501 / 22,501 $3,441,843
April 24, 2009
April 27, 2009 Prague Czech Republic O2 Arena 15,812 / 16,000 $1,391,282
April 29, 2009 Paris France Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy
April 30, 2009 Antwerp Belgium Sportpaleis
May 2, 2009 Arnhem Netherlands GelreDome
May 3, 2009 London England The O2 Arena
May 5, 2009 Sheffield Sheffield Arena
Total 808,394 / 827,245 (98%) $84,798,974

Personnel



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