At three o'clock in the morning, in a hotel room high above still-glimmering Montreal, Tina Turner is plugging into the universal buzz: nam-myo-ho-renge-kyo, nam — myo — ho — renge — kyo, nam-myo-ho-renge-kyo. The words are Japanese, but shaped by that dark, burnished voice, now pulsing with reined power, they sound like some plaintive native-American lament — an effect perhaps subliminally suggested by the dramatic sweep of Tina's high, part-Cherokee cheekbones. As...

In a business known for its exploitation of women, Tina Turner has managed, for over twenty years, to retain not only the adoration of her fans but the admiration of her peer group, male and female. She is nothing if not a survivor.

Born November 26th, 1939, Anna Mae Bullock first overcame abandonment by both of her parents during her childhood in rural Nut Bush, Tennessee. In the late Fifties, she began singing with Ike Turner, who renamed her Tina; alongside him, she rose to fame as the...

Standing in that weary confessional — the ladies' room line — at Tina Turner's recent sold-out engagement at Radio City Music Hall, I overheard a woman confide to her friend, "I told my husband, 'There's two things I want to do before I die: see the Pacific Ocean and Tina Turner live.' "

At 58, Turner has that Eighth Wonder of the World status. You do have to see her to believe her; like her good pal and, some say, psychic twin, Mick Jagger, she is...