AFP brings you the five best songs of rock queen Tina Turner, an eight-time Grammy winner.

“Proud Mary” (1971)

With her husband Ike, Tina Turner became a celebrity when she performed “Proud Mary”, written two years earlier by Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969).

In the original clip from 1971, we see Ike in the background with his guitar and afro, and Tina with her hair pulled back and a short white pearl dress behind the microphone. The duo starts out “nice and soft” before turning their hard-hitting beat into funky rock with Tina’s gospel accents.

The song, set to Southern rhythms, tells the story of a maid who leaves her job as a dishwasher in Memphis and New Orleans and boards a large steamboat that travels down the Mississippi River.

Repeated many times by various bands, this classic of the American repertoire has been a red thread in Tina Turner’s career. His extravagant duet with Beyoncé in 2008 on the 50th anniversary of the Grammy Awards became legendary.

“What’s Love Got To Do With It” (1984)

Tina divorced her abusive husband in 1976 after 20 years of beatings. Without a manufacturer, it is almost forgotten in the United States.

“Given my age, 39, my gender and the color of my skin, let’s just say, I faced headwinds,” she admits in her autobiography. In the United States, her career is teaching, and in Europe she makes an impression.

With the album “Private Dancer”, which was released in 1984, Tina Turner returned to the spotlight in her country. “What’s Love got to do with it” will become the best single in his entire career. In 1985, it won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

The song, written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, was originally supposed to be sung by Cliff Richard, but due to a misunderstanding, it passed through several hands before ending up with Tina Turner. The hit entered the pantheon of world music, receiving the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012.

We Don’t Need Another Hero (1985)

Tina Turner, who already made a name for herself as the frenzied “Acid Queen” in Tommy, The Who’s 1975 rock opera, has been cast in Mad Max: Beyond Thunder Domes opposite Mel Gibson.

In this new project, he also performs the soundtrack to “We don’t need another hero”, a new song by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten, which becomes another worldwide hit.

In the summer of 1985, the song was number 1 in Australia, number 2 in the United States and number 3 in the UK.

For this futuristic role, Tina Turner didn’t hesitate to shave her head for a striking synthetic blonde crest, complete with two large rings. She wears a 55-kilogram dress with a chain and giant shoulders.

Simply the Best (1989)

The queen of rock is unsurpassed in covers. Originally performed by Bonnie Tyler in 1988, the title was used by Tina the following year on her Foreign Affair album and became a huge hit. In 1988, about six million copies were sold.

In 1992 “The Best”, renamed “Simply the Best”, was chosen to advertise the Australian Rugby Championship. The National Rugby League will never be the same again thanks to an animated commercial featuring an expansive Tina among sweaty, sexy rubies. The national anthem will soon be played before certain baseball or football games in the United States. Tina becomes the goddess of the stadium.

“Golden Eye” (1995)

After the film “Mad Max”, she is chosen for the credits of James Bond of the same name with Pierce Brosnan in the lead role. In a cut-out silver dress on nervously arched legs, the singer, now in her fifties, unleashes her full vocal power on a score by Bono and U2’s The Edge, in the pure tradition of the 007 theme.