Tina Turner may be retired, but the sultry 80-year-old music legend is still rolling down the rhythmic river with the help of Kygo.
The Norwegian DJ / producer released his animated remix of Turner’s 1984 hit “What’s Love Got to Do With It” on Friday.
“I couldn’t be more excited to collaborate with Tina Turner, who is an icon I grew up listening to,” Kygo, 28, said in a statement. “‘[It] It’s one of my all-time favorite songs, so having the opportunity to go back to work has been a very special moment in my career. I love working with timeless vocals, and while it’s challenging to preserve elements of the original song and add my own twist, I’m extremely happy with how it turned out! ”
The simple synth takes the song in a new direction, isolating and twisting Turner’s signature guttural howl in a collaboration that reacted the pulse of many fans. One tweeted that his “heart was pounding” and another channeled one of Turner’s other greatest hits and called him “The Best.” A fan pulled Turner out of retirement and proclaimed, “The legend is back.”
Kygo scoffed at the project on Twitter earlier this week, calling the song one of his “favorite songs of all time.” The mixing master also hit social media on Thursday to preview a 4-minute music video. Directed by Palestinian artist Sarah Bahbah, it features a red carpet star (played by “Hollywood” actress Laura Harrier) who lives big and channels Turner the joy of living after separating a “bad boy” (“NCIS: New Orleans” star Charles Michael Davis) from his life. It is a story reminiscent of Turner’s separation that changed her career from husband Ike Turner in the late 1970s.
The original single was from Turner’s 1984 comeback album “Private Dancer” and featured the catchy hook “What Does Love Have To Do? What Does It Have To Do? / What Is Love But A Secondhand Emotion?” . She then won three Grammys for her: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Her music video, which features Turner strutting through the streets of New York City in high heels, a jean jacket, and a leather skirt, was awarded Best Female Video at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards.
The song was later doubled as the name of a 1993 biographical film, starring Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike, and was based on her 1986 memoir “I, Tina: My Life Story,” co-written by the student of MTV Kurt Loder. Turner’s education and career were also the focus of the coronavirus-interrupted Broadway show “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” starring Adrienne Warren.
Turner, who retired from touring in 2009, released a new memoir, “Tina Turner: My Love Story”, in 2018. In the book, she delved into the ups and downs of her post-retirement life, from her 2013 wedding with lifelong love. Edwin Bach, in her numerous health battles, including a stroke, intestinal cancer, and kidney failure that led to a transplant from her husband.
Kygo (born Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll) ventured into similar reuse territory last summer when she remixed Whitney Houston’s live version of the 1986 hit “Higher Love”, which she performed at a 1990 concert in Tokyo. That release, available on Kygo’s latest album “Golden Hour,” did not impress Post music critic Chuck Arnold, who said the late singer’s voice was “processed almost without recognition on occasion.”
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