Legendary Tina Turner looks that capture her unstoppable energy

Hoping that the name would help me carry at least a trace of her unstoppable life force, my father named me Tina. For him, that was reason enough to admire her from an early age. Later I’d learn that his impulse was very much shaped by his generation, and that many girls who share my name were named after her as well. Even though our personalities were nothing alike, some of us even deeply melancholic in the way we moved through life, carrying the name of the “Queen of Rock’n’Roll” always felt like a special honor. The reason doesn’t need much explaining. Tina Turner was, and still is, an irreplaceable force in music.

Tina Turner spent more than six decades under the spotlight. Her story began in the sixties as part of the duo Ike & Tina, and continued into the years after their divorce in 1976, when she set out on her own path. Although the duo drew attention with performances alongside The Ikettes and Kings of Rhythm, Tina’s career truly took flight only once she chose independence. She returned to the stage with her fifth solo album, Private Dancer (1984), whose single What’s Love Got to Do with It won a Grammy for Record of the Year. From there, she kept delivering hit after hit, songs that would become timeless. We Don’t Need Another Hero, It’s Only Love, Typical Male, I Don’t Wanna Lose You — just to name a few.

With more than one hundred million albums sold worldwide, Tina Turner stands among the most successful artists of all time. Her Break Every Rule tour became the highest-grossing tour by a female artist in the eighties, and with an audience of 180,000 people, she set a Guinness World Record. Over the course of her career, she won twelve Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award and three inductions into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Tina Turner performing in a mesh mini dress on the Wembley Stadium stage in 1990. Getty Images

Tina Turner left an immeasurable mark on popular culture. Beyond the countless hits defined by her powerful voice and raw emotion, she captivated the world with her electric stage presence, unforgettable performances and unmistakable image. Her signature, especially throughout her solo career, became the wild, sculptural wigs and shimmering mini dresses that showed off her perfectly sculpted legs. Her wardrobe carried the aura of a true diva. Bob Mackie, Azzedine Alaïa and Versace created showgirl-style dresses for her, and at times she even designed pieces herself. In the seventies, when she couldn’t afford original designs, Turner would buy ready-to-wear dresses in Paris and, together with Mackie, transform them into performance costumes. Legend has it that when Gianni and Donatella Versace presented her with a micro dress, she simply said, “Make it shorter.” Like any true icon, she never abandoned her signature style, all the way to her final performance. She stood as a reminder that age is just a number, and continued to inspire admiration until the very end.

Below, we highlight some of Tina Turner’s most iconic looks from her long and vibrant career.