The German Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe heard from lawyers representing US singer Tina Turner and a company promoting a tribute show on Thursday.
Turner, 81, is suing a Bavarian company, Cofo Entertainment, that produces a show, “Simply The Best — The Tina Turner Story,” starring a look-alike, Dorothea “Coco” Fletcher, with a “lion mane” just like the American singer.
Turner wants the use of her name and likeness banned from posters advertising the show lest people believe she is somehow involved in the production.
She won her case at the Cologne Regional Court but lost on appeal, with the Cologne Higher Regional Court rejecting her claim.
The German Federal Court of Justice must now decide whether the right to one’s image trumps the freedom to create.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
Unparalleled career
Tina Turner sold over 180 million albums and won many prizes including eight Grammies — not to mention the hearts of countless fans. On her sold-out farewell tour in 2009 when she was nearly 70, the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll swept the stage like a whirlwind. Many young stars could only dream of maintaining the sex appeal she still radiated at that age.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
A meeting with destiny
Anna Mae Bullock was born in Nutbush, Tennessee in 1939. Her life changed dramatically in 1957 when she met Ike Turner, who was already a well-known musician. One night, during one of his gigs in the D’Lisa Club in St. Louis, Anna Mae spontaneously picked up the mike and sang a B.B. King hit. It was the beginning of her outstanding career. Ike Turner hired the 17-year-old on the spot.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
The first hit
From then on, Anna Mae gigged as a background singer in Ike’s band, Kings of Rhythm. She got her big chance when front singer Art Lassiter didn’t show up for an album recording and Ike asked her to replace him as soloist. She sang “A Fool in Love” and scored her first hit, which reached number 27 on the US charts in August 1960.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
Anna Mae becomes Tina
Ike renamed his new lead singer Tina and his show became “The Ike Tina Turner Revue.” They married in Mexico in 1962 and had two sons together. Professionally, they consistently advanced. Tina gained attention in Europe when she sang in Phil Spector’s pop symphony, “River Deep, Mountain High.”
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
‘Proud Tina’
Regular concerts in Las Vegas and a profitable album contract made up the milestones of her successful years with Ike, when they performed an average of 270 concerts a year. They hit the top 10 in the US charts in 1970 with “Proud Mary.” That’s also when Tina received her first Grammy award as Best Rhythm and Blues Singer.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
With 36 cents to the Walk of Fame
Ike and Tina Turner were inducted as a duo into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but their life as a couple was a nightmare. Ike turned out to be a tyrant who beat Tina several times into hospitalization. In 1976, she ran away after a concert with only 36 cents in her pocket, never to return to him again. Years later, she garnered her own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
New start in the spotlight
In the divorce, Tina gave up all her rights and renounced her share of their fortune. The only thing she kept was her stage name. For a while, she survived on welfare. The major record labels had written her off as a hard-to-market has-been, but Tina returned to the spotlight in 1984 with her album “Private Dancer.”
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
Two icons on stage
Tina performed together with Mick Jagger at the Live Aid Concert in 1985. They had already met in the 1960s, when she and Ike performed as the opening act ahead of the Rolling Stones. During this concert, they sang “State of Shock” and “It’s Only Rock’n’Roll.” At the end of the duet, Mick ripped away Tina’s skirt — and Tina just kept singing in her in panties and leather top.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
A record breaker
Tina Turner became a phenomenon. In 1988, she sang at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro in front of 180,000 spectators — a record audience for a solo performer. She was paid a whopping $1 million for a brief appearance in Denmark. She collected donations for sick children by singing for business people and celebrities who are willing to pay more than $23,000 for a ticket.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
Spiritual sounds with ‘Beyond’
Tina stepped down from the stage in 2009. A practicing Buddhist, she announced in her 1985 autobiography her plans to share her spiritual knowledge following her career in music. With yoga teacher Regula Curti and mantra singer Dechen Shak-Dagsay, Tina developed a new Christian-Buddhist music project called “Beyond.”
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
Wedded bliss
Privately, things were going well, too: In the summer of 2013, Tina, who had become a Swiss citizen, married her longtime partner Erwin Bach, a German music manager. Around 120 guests were invited to the ceremony in Switzerland, including celebrities such as David Bowie, Eros Ramazzotti and Giorgio Armani.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
Some of the limelight again
Tina’s life story was turned into different films. “Tina, The Musical” has been running successfully in London since Spring 2018, and is also on show in New York and Hamburg. It tells Turner’s exciting life story and is peppered with her great hits, with US singer and actress Adrienne Warren basking in the role of the great soul diva in London — and Tina herself involved in the musical.
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Pop ‘n’ soul powerhouse Tina Turner
Buddhist serenity
Tina Turner has chosen not to return to the stage. In 2017, her husband donated one of his kidneys to her — for years she had to regularly undergo dialysis, and her life was at stake several times, a fact revealed only two years ago. She’s now enjoying her retirement at Lake Zurich. She wrote about her life in her 2018 autobiography “My Love Story.”
Author: Suzanne Cords (eg), Silke Wünsch (als)
The presiding judge, Thomas Koch, said that the determination of likeness depends not just on the similarities of facial features but also concerns the pose and clothing in an image.
Koch said that he is inclined to agree with the Cologne Higher Regional Court ruling favoring the producers of the tribute show, but he was careful to note his preliminary opinion is not a verdict in the case.
Turner’s lawyer, Kerstin Schmitt, questioned whether the reproduction of Turner’s work and the image of a look-alike was in fact art, suggesting it was merely an advertising effort.
“She would like to decide when her name and image are used for commercial purposes,” Schmitt said.
Brunhilde Ackermann, a lawyer for Cofo Entertainment, said fans expected that the lead singer in such a tribute show would resemble Tina Turner.
The court is expected to hand down its decision in February next year.
ar/nm (AFP, dpa)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/germany-tina-turner-sues-over-doppelg%C3%A4nger-tribute-show-poster/a-59722119?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf